[don_esteban]

Is it richer than before western sanctions?

It is always the same story: Look how poorly the regime manages the country!

Never said: The country is under such sanctions/blockade that any western country would have already folded long ago.

[Wytwwww]

That's very hard to answer considering Iraq spent most of the 80s in a very costly and extremely brutal (and even more pointless) war with Iraq.

[inglor_cz]

"any western country would have already folded long ago"

How do you know that? Is it just your general assumption "Westerners weak, must fold, third-worlders stronk, they endure"?

Under what conditions would you say that sanctions are OK? Or are they never? In that case, there still might be white minority rule in Rhodesia or South Africa.