-- Critical Media Literacy
in Times of War

IRAQ UNDER SANCTIONS:

What have you learned from the media?

Have the U.S. and its allies deliberately destroyed Iraq's civilian infrastructure?
There is strong evidence that U.S.-led forces intentionally bombed key elements of Iraq's water, sewer, and electric systems. Declassified documents also show that the U.S. government was fully aware that sanctions would further devastate Iraq's water treatment system. More recently, the U.S. has blocked Iraq from importing key supplies and equipment needed to restore its civilian infrastructure.

"Allied Air War Struck Broadly in Iraq; Officials Acknowledge Strategy Went Beyond Purely Military Targets", The Washington Post, Barton Gellman, June 23, 1991, p. A1
"The strategic bombing of Iraq, described in wartime briefings as a campaign against Baghdad's offensive military capabilities, now appears to have been broader in its purposes and selection of targets."
"The worst civilian suffering, senior officials say, has resulted not from bombs that went astray but from precision-guided weapons that hit exactly where they were aimed - at electrical plants, oil refineries, and transportation networks."

"The Secret Behind the Sanctions; How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply", The Progressive, Thomas J. Nagy, September, 2001
"...documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency [prove] beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway."
"Over the last decade, Washington extended the toll by continuing to withhold approval for Iraq to import the few chemicals and items of equipment it needed in order to clean up its water supply."

Did military strikes and the U.N. weapons inspection program effectively disarm Iraq?
In 1991, the United States claimed that 80% of Iraq's military capability had been destroyed during Operation Desert Storm. Former U.N. officials claim that by 1998, Iraq was effectively disarmed and very close to compliance with U.N. demands. As recently as 2001, U.S. government officials publicly stated the Iraqi threat is minimal.

"... since 1998 Iraq has been fundamentally disarmed: 90-95% of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability has been verifiably eliminated." -- Scott Ritter, Former U.N. Weapons Inspector, September 19, 2002

"Iraq in mid-1998 was extremely close to triggering the application of Paragraph 22 of U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which would have ended economic sanctions." -- Hans van Sponeck, Former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq, December 8, 2000

"By the end of 1998, Iraq had, in fact, been disarmed to a level unprecedented in modern history, but UNSCOM and the Security Council were unable-and in some instances unwilling-to acknowledge this accomplishment." -- Scott Ritter, Former U.N. Weapons Inspector, June, 2000

"I don't believe he [Saddam Hussein] is a significant military threat today." -- Vice-President Dick Cheney, March 4, 2001

Was disarming Iraq the primary goal when sanctions were first approved by the U.N. in 1990?
No, the original goal of the sanctions was the liberation of Kuwait. The disarmament conditions were established later, as a part of the Gulf War cease-fire. Resolution 661, passed by the United Nations on August 6, 1990, imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq. The resolution stated that the sanctions were designed "to bring the invasion and occupation of Kuwait by Iraq to an end and to restore the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Kuwait."

On April 3, 1991, the United Nations established the terms of the Gulf war cease-fire in Resolution 687. This resolution established additional conditions for the lifting of sanctions, including the requirement that Iraq declare and destroy all of its weapons of mass destruction under the supervision of the United Nations.

How comprehensive are the sanctions that have been imposed on Iraq?
The sanctions amount to a nearly comprehensive ban on all trade with Iraq, with strictly controlled "humanitarian exemptions" for medicine and food. Given the damage caused by the Gulf War and Iraq's dependence oil exports (which were banned), the sanctions proved devastating for both the people and economy of Iraq.

In 1997, U.S. State Department spokesperson James Rubin described the embargo against Iraq as "the toughest, most comprehensive sanctions in history." A 2000 report by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights similarly concluded that "the sanctions against Iraq are the most comprehensive, total sanctions that have ever been imposed on a country."

Is the "oil-for-food" program adequately meeting Iraq's humanitarian needs?
The program, which was started in 1996, is a stopgap measure that has only partially eased the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. A 1999 U.N. report concluded that even if the oil-for-food program is working perfectly, "the humanitarian situation in Iraq will continue to be a dire one in the absence of a sustained revival of the Iraqi economy, which in turn cannot be achieved solely through remedial humanitarian efforts."

The benefits of the program have been limited by oil production caps, lengthy approval delays, and the reservation of funds for war reparations. There have also been numerous delays and difficulties caused by the Iraqi government. Author Joy Gordon recently concluded that "since the [oil-for-food] programme began, Iraq has earned approximately $57 billion in oil revenues, of which it has spent about $23 billion on goods that actually arrived. This comes to about $170 per year per person, which is less than one half the annual per capita income of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere."