Freedom By Way Of Being Totally Screwed

The nation of Tuvalu has recently come under fire from Howard Berman, the ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, for violating American sanctions on Iran. Specifically, Berman is noting that Tuvalu has been reflagging Iranian ships, allowing them to operate under Tuvalu's flag, which is an action that Berman warns may lead to sanctions on Tuvalu.

It should be noted that Tuvalu is looking like the very first country that is slated to sink beneath the waves due to rising sea levels caused by carbon emissions from, among others, the United States, who it should be noted they're particularly peeved at for same. The sinking process has actually already started. And even if sanctions were to be imposed on Tuvalu, it's not like the two really trade with each other much in the first place, or that Tuvalu has much to trade even if they wanted to, unless you count the .tv domain name. Tuvalu mainly operates on subsistence farming.

Also, Tuvalu and the United States don't even have diplomatic relations with each other. And the United States has diplomatic relations with just about everybody.

So it's not exactly clear what incentive or reason Tuvalu has to listen to a single word that comes out of Berman's fool mouth. They can just stand there going 'You're basically causing our country to cease to exist as it is. Go screw yourself'. Heck, they could say so using literally that exact phrasing. Tuvalu's head of state could probably fly to Washington and personally urinate in Howard Berman's coffee cup without Tuvalu suffering any real ill effects beyond that which they're already going through. What's the United States seriously going to do? Bomb them? It's not like Tuvalu has much of anything left to lose anymore. Anyone that can either hold back the seas or give them money to buy alternative land to live on or at the very least send some evacuation ships is okay in their book. And Iran has shown up with ships and money, making Iran Tuvalu's new best friend.

Tuvalu is past the point where they give a damn what other nations are doing to each other. All they really care about or have any reason to care about is what's being done to them, or for them. Iran is doing things for them. The United States is doing things to them, and threatening to do more things to them. It's that simple.