Quote:
Originally posted by Pleasurepays
i think people tend to miss the point that the Oil for Food program and the sanctions in general, are a program implemented and overseen by the UN. Not the US. They provide for plenty of food, medication and money for Iraqs needs. It is Saddam Hussein who fucks this all up.
Saddam has made the choice to not allow weapons inspections, to shoot at coalition air patrols and to violate the 16 resolutions passed by the UN. That is why the sanctions have never been lifted and are supported by the world community and UN.
If the Iraqi people suffer, then you need to direct your anger at the root of the problem which is the policy of Saddam Hussein
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this is semantics of the highest order, American dominance of the Security Council means the the US and british representatives on the Sanctions Committee alone delay and veto contracts.
Kofi Annan who was basically appointed by the americans complained the delays and vetoes were 'seriously impairing the effective implementation of the oil for food programme'
heart and cancer drugs, oxygen tents, xray machines have been vetoed or delayed, Sixteen heart and lung machines were put 'on hold' because they contained computer chips. A fleet of ambulances was held up because their equipment included vacuum flasks, which keeps medical supplies cold.. they are designated 'dual use' by the sanctions committee.
as of october 2001, 1010 contracts for humanitarian supplies, worth 3.85 billion were 'on hold' by the sanctions committee.
In 1999 seventy members of the US Congress signed an unusually blunt letter to Clinton, appealing to him to lift the embargo and end what the called 'infanticide masquerading as policy'
it's half a million children.. not 2 million like someone else said before..
Almost a third of the oil for food money goes to pay the UN's administrative expenses, reparations to Kuwait and compensation claims to oil companies..
It doesn't hurt Saddam... it only hurts his people.. and guess who they blame?? it's only made him stronger with his people because you are providing them with a common enemy.. Saddam used the money from oil to bring Iraq to western first-world conditions in the late 70's. the people remember this.. the UN sanctions committee is directly complicit in the deaths of more people than have been killed by weapons of mass destruction put together.. sure, some of them want saddam and all the problems to go, but they aren't cheering for the side thats vetoed the medicine that could have saved their kid's life.. the kid that got cancer from the depleted uranium rounds US forces used in '91 - the biggest 'dirty bomb' ever used that caused a seven fold increase in cancer rates and a 5000 times-the-average radiation level people in Iraq endure.
Saddam is the only true beneficiary of the embargo, he has used it to centralise state power and reinforce his control over people's lives, with most Iraqis dependant on the state food rationing system for day to day survival organised political dissent doesn't exist - it's cancelled out by a hatred for us.. Iraq was pro-western before '91.
take Saddam out.. but for fucks sake.. leave the iraqi people.. who are as literate and advanced as me and you have suffered enough.. even with saddam gone they've still got to deal with the uranium contamination the '91 munitions caused...