Yes, that's such a nice belief Mike. We have nothing to do with the U.N., it's all them, not us. Yay!
*********************************
"Myth 1: The sanctions have produced temporary hardship for the Iraqi people but are an effective, nonviolent method of containing Iraq.
Sanctions target the weakest and most vulnerable members of the Iraqi society–the poor, elderly, newborn, sick, and young. Many equate sanctions with violence. The sanctions, coupled with pain inflicted by US and UK military attacks, have reduced Iraq’s infrastructure to virtual rubble. Water sanitation plants and hospitals remain in dilapidated states. Surveys by the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organization (WHO) note a marked decline in health and nutrition throughout Iraq."
From:
THIS LINK
***************************
"Before we rush to war with Iraq again, Americans must know what happened in the last war. In 1991, we bombed Iraq's civilian infrastructure to "accelerate the effect of sanctions" knowing it would shut down their water and sewage systems.1 The UN reported there would soon be "epidemic and famine" and "time was short" to prevent it. We said that "by making life uncomfortable for the Iraqi people we would encourage them to remove President Saddam Hussein."2 And we waited for this to happen.
We used epidemic and famine as tools of our foreign policy. We did it to cause suffering--and death--to get regime change at low cost. We tried to force the Iraqis to do it. But it was not low cost. "
From:
THIS LINK
********************************
"Nine years after the Gulf War, the United States-led international sanctions on Iraq are being accused of causing a humanitarian disaster and creating a lost generation of Iraqi youths. The German coordinator of the United Nation’s (UN) humanitarian programs in Iraq resigned in protest over the inadequacy of the oil-for-food program administered by the UN.
In August 1990, a full economic embargo was imposed on Iraq, prohibiting the country from exporting any product and placing strangling restrictions on its imports. A few years later the United States and Britain led the United Nations in creating an oil-for-food program that only allows Iraq to export a set amount of oil every 6 months in order for it to buy food. Currently, Iraq produces around 2.6 million barrels of oil per day, but its capacity to produce is being hindered by its inability to import spare
parts in order to repair its infrastructure."
From:
THIS LINK
******************************
"Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving 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.
The primary document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," is dated January 22, 1991. It spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens."
From: Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving 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.
The primary document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," is dated January 22, 1991. It spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens.
****************************************************************
"1.5 million people in Iraq, over half of them children under five, have died as a direct result of the sanctions. One-third of children are severely malnurished. Eight years of sanctions have denied an entire generation books and even pencils, and have caused them physical and mental damage that, even if they survive, they will never completely overcome.
For the Iraqi people, the Gulf War is still not over. Since August 1990, Iraq has been under U.S.-led UN economic sanctions. These sanctions prevent Iraq from selling oil and freeze Iraq's foreign assets, the result of which is the inability to purchase the food and medicines that the people desperately need. The UN's own agencies (UNICEF, FAO, WFP, WHO), academic institutions (such as Harvard and the University of Massachusetts), and grassroots organizations including the International Action Center have sent teams of people to independently investigate the humanitarian situation in Iraq. Medical professionals, professors, students, religious leaders, political and social activists, and many others have traveled to Iraq to witness the suffering of the Iraqi people and to bring a message back to the U.S. that the mainstream press will never tell you_THE SANCTIONS MUST END NOW!"
From:
THIS LINK
*************************
Gina
