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<p>(See main article below.)<br>
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Lesley Stahl: "We have heard that half a million children have died. I
mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is
the price worth it?" <br>
<br>
Madeline (Bad Hat) Albright: "We think the price is worth it."<br>
<br>
*<br>
<p>From Wikipaedia -<br>
Estimates of excess deaths during [Iraq] sanctions vary depending on
the source. The estimates vary <sup id="cite_ref-unicef99_23-1"
class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-unicef99-23"><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></a></sup><sup
id="cite_ref-atrocities1997_29-0" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-atrocities1997-29"><span>[</span>30<span>]</span></a></sup>
due to differences in methodologies, and specific time-frames covered.<sup
id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-30"><span>[</span>31<span>]</span></a></sup>
A short listing of estimates follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicef" title="Unicef"
class="mw-redirect">Unicef</a>: 500,000 children (including sanctions,
collateral effects of war). "[As of 1999] [c]hildren under 5 years of
age are dying at more than twice the rate they were ten years ago."<sup
id="cite_ref-unicef99_23-2" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-unicef99-23"><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></a></sup><sup
id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-31"><span>[</span>32<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Halliday"
title="Denis Halliday">Denis Halliday</a>: "Two hundred thirty-nine
thousand children 5 years old and under" as of 1998.<sup
id="cite_ref-Michael_Powell_1998_5-1" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-Michael_Powell_1998-5"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Iraqi <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baathist"
title="Baathist" class="mw-redirect">Baathist</a> government: 1.5
million.<sup id="cite_ref-Welch2002_21-1" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-Welch2002-21"><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Iraqi Cultural Minister Hammadi: 1.7 million (includes sanctions,
bombs and other weapons, depleted uranium poisoning) <sup
id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-32"><span>[</span>33<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>"probably ... 170,000 children", Project on Defense Alternatives,
"The Wages of War", 20. October 2003<sup id="cite_ref-33"
class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-33"><span>[</span>34<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>350,000 excess deaths among children "even using conservative
estimates", Slate Explainer, "Are 1 Million Children Dying in Iraq?",
9. October 2001.<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-34"><span>[</span>35<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>"<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garfield_%28nursing_professor%29"
title="Richard Garfield (nursing professor)">Richard Garfield</a>, a <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University"
title="Columbia University">Columbia University</a> nursing professor
... cited the figures 345,000-530,000 for the entire 1990-2002 period"<sup
id="cite_ref-ds03_35-0" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-ds03-35"><span>[</span>36<span>]</span></a></sup>
for sanctions-related excess deaths.<sup id="cite_ref-NP02_36-0"
class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-NP02-36"><span>[</span>37<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Zaidi, S. and Fawzi, M. C. S., <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lancet" title="The Lancet">The
Lancet</a> (1995, estimate withdrawn in 1997):567,000 children.<sup
id="cite_ref-Spagat_8-1" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-Spagat-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Editor (then "associate editor and media columnist") <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Welch" title="Matt Welch">Matt
Welch</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-37"><span>[</span>38<span>]</span></a></sup>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason_Magazine"
title="Reason Magazine" class="mw-redirect">Reason Magazine</a>, 2002:
"It seems awfully hard not to conclude that the embargo on Iraq has ...
contributed to more than 100,000 deaths since 1990."<sup
id="cite_ref-Welch2002_21-2" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-Welch2002-21"><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></a></sup><sup
id="cite_ref-NP02_36-1" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-NP02-36"><span>[</span>37<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Former U.S. Attorney General <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsey_Clark" title="Ramsey Clark">Ramsey
Clark</a>: 1.5 million (includes sanctions, bombs and other weapons,
depleted uranium poisoning).<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-38"><span>[</span>39<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>British Member of Parliament <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Galloway"
title="George Galloway">George Galloway</a>: "a million Iraqis, most
of them children."<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-39"><span>[</span>40<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>Economist Michael Spagat: "very likely to be [less than] than
half a million children."<sup id="cite_ref-Spagat_8-2" class="reference"><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions#cite_note-Spagat-8"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a></sup></li>
</ul>
<br>
*<br>
U.S. responsible for human toll of Iraq sanctions
<br>
<br>
JOY GORDON | Fairfield University philosophy professor | Posted:
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:00 am<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_444bba62-911a-58a4-b9b6-3c7caa21027d.html">http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/article_444bba62-911a-58a4-b9b6-3c7caa21027d.html</a><big><font
size="-1"><big><strong><br>
</strong></big></font></big>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>Last week the U.N. Security Council voted
to lift the sanctions
that it imposed on Iraq 20 years ago. Vice President Joe Biden
hailed the occasion as “an end to the burdensome remnants of the
dark era of Saddam Hussein.”</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>What he did not say was that the sanctions
were more than
burdensome. They triggered a humanitarian crisis that resulted in
the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children, and the collapse
of every system necessary to sustain human life in a modern
society. And he certainly did not mention that among all the
nations on the Security Council, it was the U.S. -- and the U.S.
alone -- that ensured that this human damage would be massive and
indiscriminate.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>All of this took place within an obscure
committee of the
Security Council, known as the 661 Committee. Few have heard of it.
But it was this committee that determined whether Iraqis would have
clean water, electricity in their homes, or fuel for cars and
trucks.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>It was a committee that met behind closed
doors, and never made
its records public. Within it, the U.S. had a unique role. As the
humanitarian situation in Iraq deteriorated, support for the
sanctions on the Security Council began to erode. When other
members of the council sought to allow critical humanitarian goods
into Iraq, the U.S. vetoed them. For the first eight months of the
sanctions, the U.S. would not even allow Iraq to import food. Once
the committee decided to allow food, the U.S. then objected to
trucks needed to deliver food and other goods, as well as
irrigation equipment to increase agriculture.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>The U.S. policies were extreme and
relentless. The U.S. blocked
refrigeration for medicines, on the grounds that refrigerators
might be used to store agents for biological weapons. The U.S.
blocked things as innocuous as plywood, fabric, glue and glass on
the grounds that they were “inputs to industry,” which might be
used to rebuild Iraq’s military.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>The U.S. blocked child vaccines and
yogurt-making equipment on
the grounds that the Iraqi government might use them to make
weapons of mass destruction. When Iraq tried to increase the number
of small animals for meat, cheese and milk, the U.S. blocked goat
and sheep vaccines, claiming that Iraq might use them as biological
weapons.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>The U.S. prevented Iraq from importing
water tankers during a
period of drought, while there were epidemic levels of sickness
from drinking water unfit for human consumption. And water pipes
for irrigation. And light switches, and telephones, and ambulance
radios, and fire trucks, claiming that they might be used by Iraq’s
military.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>At one point, a U.S. official came before
the 661 Committee with
a vial of cat litter, and informed the members, in all seriousness:
“This could be used to stabilize anthrax.”</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>No one else found the U.S. justifications
to be plausible.
UNMOVIC, the U.N.’s weapons inspectors, disputed many of the U.S.
justifications for blocking humanitarian goods. Even Britain, the
U.S.’ closest ally on the Security Council, did not share the views
of the U.S. Still, the U.S. rarely relented.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>The U.S. insisted that these policies were
aimed at Saddam
Hussein. But it was obvious that they had little to do with him.
Iraq’s political and military leadership, and the wealthy elite,
were insulated from the hardship. But the population as a whole was
not.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>To destroy a country’s infrastructure, to
reduce a nation to a
pre-industrial condition and then keep it in that state, means
precisely that it will be unfit to sustain human life. The reports
of U.N. agencies and international organizations such as the Red
Cross ensured that U.S. officials knew, with certainty, exactly
what harm was being caused by U.S. policies.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big>While Vice President Biden tells the world
that the end of the
sanctions means that Iraq can now move forward to a bright future,
what he does not say is that in fact there was damage that was
irreversible, including child deaths and stunted growth from years
of malnutrition. What he also does not say is that the rest of the
damage -- the collapse of the infrastructure, the terrible
deterioration in industry, agriculture, electricity, health and
education -- was not just due to Saddam Hussein’s indifference.
However much harm Saddam did to the Iraqi people, the U.S., for
over a decade, made it far, far worse.</big></font></big></p>
<p><big><font size="-1"><big><em>Joy Gordon, Ph.D., is a philosophy
professor at Fairfield
University. She is the author of “Invisible War: The United States
and the Iraq Sanctions” (Harvard University Press).</em></big></font></big></p>
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