Did you skip right over the Lancet sentence that concluded the annual toll caused by unilateral sanctions (over 564k) is comparable to armed conflict?
In aggregate. America isn’t in armed conflict with those folks. If everyone we sanctioned were attacked, more people would die.
Moreover, it's kind of consequentialist morality ignores the distinction of active harm versus failure to Aid.
This should play a role when one considers something an attack or weapon.
Is less than maximal charity an attack?
Is it an attack when someone refuses to sleep with someone else?
Norms around choice versus entitlement distinguish the two.
Sanctions are omission, blockade is comission. These words are currently being conflated.
Imposing a restriction where one did not previously exist is quite obviously a commission.
A blockade is different. It is a threat to use force for disobedience. IF I threaten to beat other who willingly shop at the baker.
Other than our monkey brains prioritizing physical violence as worse, I don’t see a functional different between deaths from sanctions and deaths from bombs.