Worse than War?
After the shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq in 2003, and President Bush's Mission Accomplished speech a few months later, and the relentless and bloody insurgency that has captured the attention of the world ever since, we have all but forgotten what is arguably the greater crime against the people of Iraq — the US-led sanctions of the 90s.
The exact number of Iraqi deaths is in dispute, but clearly the sanctions were responsible for a "humanitarian disaster" that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Who can forget the stunning coldness of Madeline Albright's 1996 assessment of the sanctions' success:
"60 Minutes" asked then-U.N. ambassador Madeline Albright about the death toll of 500,000 children. She responded: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it."
How can we call ourselves a Christian nation?
In 1999, Dr. Richard Garfield of Columbia University published a study disputing the 500,000 number. According to Garfield, deaths of children under five years old attributable to sanctions ranged from a "conservative" 106,106 to "most likely" 227,713.
Does the lower estimate make you feel any better about all those dead kids?
In 1998, Denis Halliday, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, resigned his position in protest. He called the sanctions "genocide."
Too strong a word? Hardly. Halliday claims "between 1 million and 1.5 million Iraqis died from malnutrition or inadequate health care resulting from economic sanctions."
What in God's name gives us the right?
Comments
Very powerful post. We don't have the right, but of course that doesn't seem to stop the hypocrites who hide behind their religious fervor.
I read once that Timothy McVey had no idea there was a daycare center in the Edward Murrow building. He was sorry the children died and became collateral damage, but he never intended for them to be targets.
How ironic that a homegrown terrorist has a moral compass that our government lacks.
Posted by: Kathy | March 9, 2006 10:33 AM