Of course: Europe fails to enforce its own sanctions against Iran

(Carl) Yet another reminder that sanctions will never stop Iran's nuclear program... because Europe won't enforce them.

Continental Europe's zig-zag course with sanctioned Iranian officials remains a counterproductive leftover vestige to the EU's nearly 30 year failed policy of dialogue with Tehran's clerical rulers. Take the example of Irans foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, who on December 4 appeared in Bonn to attend the Afghanistan conference. Though Salehi is sanctioned by the EU because of his work on Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, he met with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle [pictured above. CiJ] and schmoozed with the conference attendees. The EU has waived its own visa restrictions against Salehi.
Attention to a second case this week raises again the point of impotent EU diplomatic sanctions. Iranian oil minister Rostam Ghasemi swooped into Vienna on Tuesday to attend the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting on Wednesday. Ghasemi commands Iran's revolutionary guards' Khatam al-Anbia military. The EU, Australia and the United States have sanctioned Ghasemi. His tentacles are immersed in blacklisted revolutionary guard companies. Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps is defined as a global terrorist organization by the US government. Yet his presence at the Vienna parley makes a mockery of Iran-based sanctions. Diplomatic business as usual is precisely what Tehran seeks. And the EU, sadly, is reciprocating.

The irony is that the Europeans probably have a greater interest than anyone outside of Israel in stopping Iran. Their economies are already teetering on the brink - a sharp rise in the price of oil resulting from a war could tank Europe's economies for a generation. And yet, the Europeans continue to throw a stick in the spokes of the one thing that might have a chance of averting war. They seem to have a death wish, provided of course that they can take as many Jews as possible with them (God forbid).
What could go wrong.

Carl must of written this blog post on the fly. They not only want to avoid war with an aggressive state, but they want to do business with people who are religiously inclined to be martyrs. These aren't Shinto Buddhists or Communists, these are Muslims and you can not co-op their emperor or prove their system doesn't work. It is obvious that Europe wants their cake and to eat it to. It seems like the whole world does.

(Have one's cake and eat it too - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) A French equivalent expression is: vouloir le beurre et l'argent du beurre, meaning literally to want the butter and the money for the butter. The idiom can be emphasized by adding et le sourire de la crémière ("and the smile of the female buttermaker").
The expression avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca ("to have the barrel full and the wife drunk") is used in Italy with an equivalent meaning.
In Spanish, querer estar en misa y en procesión ("wishing to be both at Mass and in the procession") and nadar y guardar la ropa ("swimming and keeping an eye on the removed clothes") are similar in meaning.
There is a Serbian equivalent as well, Не можеш да имаш и јаре и паре ("You can't have both goatling and money").
Similarly, in Chinese, "也要马儿好，也要马儿不吃草" (pinyin: Yě yào mǎ hǎo, yě yào mǎ bu chī cǎo) means "you want the horse to be the best, but don't want it to eat any grass".
There is a Greek equivalent as well: "Και την πίτα ολόκληρη και τον σκύλο χορτάτο" ("you want the pie whole and the dog full").
A similar expression in Swiss German is Du chasch nit dr Füfer und s Weggli ha ("you can't have the five cent coin and a -certain type of swiss- bread roll").
A Nepalese equivalent also exists that goes dubai haat ma laddu, which means having laddu (a sweet candy) in both your hands.
In Argentina, the expression la chancha y los veinte literally means "the pig and the twenties". It comes from the old piggybanks for children that used to contain coins of 20 cents. The only way to get the coins was to break the piggyback open -- hence the phrase. This can be emphasized by adding y la máquina de hacer chorizos, which translates to "and the machine to make sausage".
In Bulgaria it's a very often occurrence for the expression to be used: "И вълкът сит, и агнето цяло" ("The wolf is full, and the lamb - whole.")