Their opposing expert is an Iranian MP? What? Couldn't they find some 12 year old to pitch the pain and hurt to the children?

No difference that asking a Congress critter for his opinion.

Problem I have with sanctions is they almost always hurt the low-income uneducated common citizen. The power elite and military in Iran won't feel it, it will just trickle down to more problems for the little guy. Meanwhile, their government will lie to the people as to 'why' America has imposed sanctions and fuel the fires of hate westerrn hatred even further.
Of course the imposing of sanctions has always been a 'softening' up tactic of a countries financial resources and this will be the pre-cursor to any attacks. Soften up the countries resources, send in the WIldWeasels with ECM to scramble/disable communications/radars and then attack.