| Today, most of us here in the United States have little to worry about getting food and reality, we take these things for granted � especially in a rich and powerful country as the U.S. Unfortunately, some of us are unaware or forgetful of those people in other parts of the world who don�t have the same advantages we do. One of those places is the country of Iraq. Iraq is always presented as a country considered having weapons of mass destruction. What is not considered is the suffering of the people of Iraq from disease and hunger due to the sanctions (blocking imports such as food and medicine) of the United Nations. Seven years after the beginning of Operation Desert Storm, the sanctions against Iraq have devastated every aspect of Iraqi life: its economy, its educational system, even its electrical and water systems. More than one million Iraqi civilians have died from insufficient food and medicine. About 450,000 children under the age of five are dying every month �one every ten minutes � from preventable disease and hunger, largely because of these sanctions. With a few minor exceptions, the suffering of the Iraqi people has been kept out of sight. The American people only see Saddam Hussein, one of the few Iraqis guaranteed three square mals a day. Iraq gets the spotlight only when the regime is �disobedient.� It is as though nothing else is happening in Iraq, when in fact, millions are suffering because of the policies of the U.N., the U.S. and Saddam Hussein himself. Because the Unites States is considered a just and lawful country, we should keep in mind the human rights of the Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein and his regime are not affected by sanctions. The sanctions only punish innocent civilians. If the United States continues to oppose the lifting of the sanctions on the Iraqi people, its credibility as a responsible world power will be in question. While the United States is trying to stop Saddam Hussein from producing weapons of mass destruction, the sanctions themselves become a weapon of mass destruction � one being used today. |
| Sanctions Hurt the Innocent By Batoul Safi (published in her high school newspaper - 1997) |