CAMPAIGN TO END THE SANCTIONS AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ
August 6, 2002 marked 12 years of utterly inhuman sanctions
against the people of Iraq. The United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) has demonstrated that these sanctions are responsible
for the deaths of more than 500,000 Iraqi children between
1991 and 1998. An estimated 5,000 children continue to die
each month due to sanctions.
Western media now report matter-of-factly about U.S. Government plots to
overthrow Saddam Hussein, through covert operations or direct military assault.
The debate has been reduced to how Iraq should be attacked; it is beyond dispute,
we are to believe, that the U.S. has a moral right to bomb societies and oust
leaders it does not like.
What threat does Iraq pose?
Scott Ritter, former lead inspector of the United Nations Special Commission to disarm
Iraq (UNSCOM) is unequivocal: "from a qualitative standpoint, when you judge
Iraq's current weapons of mass destruction capabilities today, they have none. In
terms of long-range ballistic missiles, missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers,
Iraq no longer has these missiles. They have been disarmed. In terms of
missile production facilities, which were associated with the production of long
range missiles, these facilities have either been destroyed, dismantled, or prior to the
American military action in 1998, under strict monitoring by the weapons inspectors.
The same holds true with chemical weapons. … The same holds true for
biology. The same holds true for nuclear. So when we talk about Iraq's current
weapons of mass destruction threat, the answer is: there are no weapons of mass
destruction threat." (Congressional Briefing, 3 May 2000)
What are sanctions?
Sanctions are restrictions on the import and export of goods. Following Iraq's
invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations (UN), led by the U.S., imposed the
most comprehensive sanctions ever envisaged against the people of Iraq. They
remain to this day. These restrictions have included materials needed to rebuild
Iraq's infrastructure - water and sewage treatment facilities, electrical systems, communications
facilities, roads, hospitals, schools, and industries - targeted during
the Gulf War. Postwar reconstruction has been virtually impossible.
Three successive UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq have denounced these devastating sanctions.
Following his resignation in protest in October 1998, Denis Halliday explained: we
"are in the process of destroying an entire society. is as simple and terrifying
as that. It is illegal and immoral."
Renewed every six months, the current version, dubbed "smart sanctions," was passed in May
2002. The revisions are purported to allow a greater flow of civilian goods into Iraq, but without
a sustained revival of the Iraqi economy and the massive investment needed to rebuild the
country's infrastructure, the humanitarian crisis will continue. While the stated intention
of sanctions was to weaken the regime of Saddam Hussein, it has served to
entrench his power.
The regime has not suffered, and those of the middle class, seen as the most likely
source of effective opposition to Saddam, have either been reduced to poverty or
have fled the country. Ordinary people have become dependent on government
rations for their very existence, ensuring submission (if not loyalty) to his regime.
Sanctions are to remain until Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction
capability. Problem is - the goalposts keep moving, and partial compliance has
not met with partial lifting of sanctions. As long as each nut and bolt has not been
accounted for, the U.S. insists that the brutal sanctions regime remains in place.
The U.S. government pursues its agenda of removing Saddam Hussein from power,
at the expense of diplomatic means of dis-armament.
So what's it really all about?
Oil. Not weapons of mass destruction, not freeing the Iraqi people, not the "war
on terrorism." The ultimate goal of the U.S. government is to install a more compliant
regime to run the world's second greatest source of oil. It's that simple.
And while the world may finally be rid of the vile Saddam Hussein, what are the
prospects of prosperity, security, and democracy for the 24,999,999 Iraqis who
will also suffer the chaos and cruelty of bombings, invasions, and occupation?
What can I do?
