President Obama Declares Global 'Economic War,' Orders World Leaders to Pick a Side by Dinner
Treasury unveils a worldwide sanctions campaign; allies informed that continued friendship with the wrong country is now, itself, a sanctionable activity
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
WASHINGTON — President Obama opened a sweeping new campaign of economic warfare this week, directing the Treasury to sanction dozens of foreign companies, ships and individuals across several countries and instructing his Treasury secretary to inform the rest of the planet that doing business with the target nation is now a choice between the United States and its enemies, with no third option available at this time.
Reaction abroad was uniform; reaction at home was not. Supporters hailed the move as long-overdue American resolve, praising a President finally willing to make the world choose. Opponents warned of dangerous unilateralism, reckless cowboy diplomacy and the alienation of allies. The Press notes that both groups delivered these remarks from scripts that were, four years ago, stapled to the opposite lecterns.
