Editor's Note:

This is Part Three of a series written by T.J. Coles. The first (The Occupation 10 Years On) can be found here; the second (Britain's Favourite Punching Bag) can be found here.

"We think the price is worth it."

--Madeleine Albright, then-US Secretary of State upon hearing that 500,000 children had died (60 Minutes interview) 

The sanctions imposed on Iraq from 1990 to 2003 were perhaps the biggest crime of the post-WWII period, "one of the great man-made disasters of the last half-century," writes journalist Patrick Cockburn, one of the few to brave beyond the US-imposed "Green Zone".  [1] "The sanctions effectively denied an entire population the means to live," acknowledged British diplomat, Carne Ross, one of those responsible for implementing them. [2]

Despite his invasion of oil-rich Kuwait, Saddam Hussein remained a semi-secret ally of the West. Even after the Gulf War (1991), which was allegedly undertaken to liberate Kuwait, the Bush 1 administration worked with the tyrant to crush the Shia-Kurdish uprising that could have overthrown him. The quid pro quo was that Hussein could stay in power, giving Britain and America an excuse to use economic warfare against Iraq to weaken it enough for the 2003-present occupation.

SANCTIONS

US Army War College Lt. Col., William J. Bender, explained: "sanctions are believed to have been very effective in limiting Iraq’s ability to rebuild conventional forces that were essentially cut by 50% as a result of the Gulf War". [3] A US Congressional report confirmed that after crushing the Shia-Kurdish uprising, "The thrust of subsequent U.S. policy was containment through U.N. Security Council-authorized weapons inspections, an international economic embargo, and U.S.-led enforcement of no fly zones over both northern and southern Iraq". [4]

The British House of Commons Library conceded in 1999 that, because of the sanctions, "most commentators agree that at least 200,000 people of all ages have died. Some reports place the figure close to one million deaths". [5] The effect of the sanctions was known in advance. The US Defense Intelligence Agency noted: "Failure to secure [water treatment] supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population." [6]

Despite propaganda, that UN Security Council Resolution 661 allowed Iraq to import medicines and other essentials, the fact is that medicines, etc., were blocked by the British Royal Navy. The Sanctions Committee banned food, medicines, and medical supplies, in violation of Article 3(c).

Citing official sources, Geoff Simons documented the list of items that Britain and America banned from entering Iraq from 1990 to 2003: angina medicine; baby food; children’s toys (one British woman was even threatened with legal action for sending her Iraqi relative a teddy-bear); cobalt (for x-ray machines); epilepsy medicine; equipment for dialysis; medical swabs; morphine; medical journals; pencils; pencil sharpeners; powdered milk; sanitary towels; shampoo; shoelaces; shroud materials; soap; surgical gloves; syringes; water purification chemicals (a need predicted by the US Defense Intelligence Agency); toilet paper; and toothbrushes, to name just some of the items. [7]

In protest, two UN Assistant Secretary-generals, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, resigned in succession, going on to write about their experiences. Halliday courageously smuggled medicine into the country, so that children’s cancer and other pain could be eased. [8] The sanctions genocide reduced Iraq’s living standards from the level of Greece to Burundi. As anticipated, the invasion in 2003 pushed Iraqis further into despair:

"Almost a 1/3 [sic] of all children in the centre and in the south suffer from chronic malnutrition. The prevalence of low birth-weight babies has increased more than 5 times in the last ten years," "Development" Secretary Clare Short informed British PM (and war criminal extraordinaire) Tony Blair, in a classified letter on 5 March, 2003, indicating that the elite knew full-well that any military action would greatly exacerbate the suffering:

 

"Death from diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection – both easily preventable – account for 70% of child mortality ... Mortality rates of children under 5 per 1000 [in] Centre and Southern Iraq [are] 135 … worse than the Democratic Republic of Congo or Mozambique". Short recognised, however, that the most important thing was not preventing further disaster, but rather, having a good public relations campaign in order to justify the invasion:

"Situation of the Iraqi people already extremely fragile. Any disruption could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe," she informed Blair on 14 February, 2003. "Such measures [to "reduce risks"] would also help persuade the Iraqi people – as well as neighbouring countries and the British public – that we have their concerns at heart". This laid the basis for the disaster of March 2003-present. [9]

HUMAN TOLL

The consequences for women and girls were horrendous. Human Rights Watch reported that the sanctions

"had a disproportionate impact on women and girls. For example, the gender gap in school enrollment (and subsequently female illiteracy) increased dramatically as families facing financial stress elected to keep their girls at home. During the sanctions years, the mortality rate for children and pregnant women jumped; between 1989 and 2002, the number of women who died during childbirth almost tripled. The poor economic situation, coupled with a population imbalance as a result of male casualties from combat [in the Gulf War and Iran-Iraq War], created conditions whereby families wanted to give up girls quickly, fueling child marriages and trafficking in women and girls. During this time poorer families were more inclined to send their girls abroad in arranged marriages with few preconditions in the hopes that the girls would lead better lives and send money home."  [10]

Professor Halliday wrote at the time: 

"The sale of homes, furniture, personal belongings, and books for survival is common. Among the very poor, even prostitution is resorted to in order to put food on the table. The devaluation of the dinar has wiped out the savings and earnings of professionals and wage earners alike. In 1990, one dinar purchased three U.S. dollars. Today, it may take 1,500 dinars to purchase one dollar. This has destroyed the buying power of the average family and has put normal consumer goods beyond reach of most Iraqis. It has also excluded fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit from the family table." [11]

The latter meant malnutrition and thus brain-damage. According to the US Government’s General Accountability Office:

"Diseases related to unsafe water and poor sanitation increased significantly between 1990 and 2000. [In 2003,] no sewage treatment plants were operational, and raw sewage was discharged into rivers and waterways. Furthermore, sewage leaked into the water network, which was too damaged to keep contaminants out. These sources of contamination caused levels of water-related diseases to escalate. According to a UN Children’s Fund report, the number of typhoid cases rose from 2,240 in the pre-1991 period to 27,000 in 1996." [12] 

Analyst Abbas Alnaswari writes: "Estimates of the number of people who lost their lives because of the sanctions range up to 1.5 million people, including more than 500 000 children," adding that "The World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded that the health system had been set back by some 50 years." [13] Apart from Paying The Price, one documentary by John Pilger, aired once late at night on ITV, these realities were shielded from the British public, whose tax money paid for the genocide.

CONCLUSION

Having been forced into "Third World" misery, Iraq was almost totally defenceless, barring a few brave resistance fighters (or "insurgents" in the media propaganda nomenclature). The real--as opposed to rhetorical or theoretical--reasons for the full-scale occupation of 2003-present were explained in 2000 by members of what would become the Bush 2 administration, namely the Project for the New American Century:

"the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." [14]

Thus, the real reason for the occupation and the irrelevance of the Saddam Hussein regime was known to journalists at the time. Rather than resigning for gross negligence, years after the Shock and Awe of 2003, pro-war "journalists" could plead mere buffoonery, despite overwhelming evidence that "democracy" was the last thing the elites of Britain and America want(ed) for Iraq. [15]

Professor David Miller, founder of SpinWatch, even documented cases of British journalists' complicity in war crimes, such as directing attacks against convoys. [16]

Today, Iran is facing a similar crisis to Iraq. Fortunately this time, China and other countries are partly breaking the blockade. If the sanctions on Iran are intensified, it could mean Iraq all over again.

NOTES

1. Patrick Cockburn, 2007, The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq, London: Verso.

2. Ross quoted in John Pilger, 2010, The War You Don't See, ITV

3. W.J. Bender, "Strategic Implication for U.S. Policy in Iraq: What Now?", Strategy Research Project 20020604 207, 9 April, 2002, Pennsylvania: US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks.

4. K. Katzman, "Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security", 28 October, 2009, Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

5. T. Youngs and M. Oakes, "Iraq: “Desert Fox” and Policy Developments", House of Commons Library, Research Paper 99/13, 10 February, 1999.

6. Quoted in Robert Fisk, 2005, The Great War for Civilisation, London: HarperPerennial.

7. G. Simons, 1998, The Scourging of Iraq: Sanctions, Law and Natural Justice, London: Macmillan Press.

8. John Pilger, 2000, Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq, ITV.

9. C. Short, Letters to Prime Minister Tony Blair, 14 February, 5 March, 7 April, 2003, archived at the Iraq Inquiry, http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk

10. Human Rights Watch, "At the Crossroads: Human Rights in Iraq Eight Years After the US-led Invasion", February, 2010, NY: HRW.

11. D. Halliday, "The Impact of the UN Sanctions on the People of Iraq", Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2, Winter, 1999, pp. 29-37.

12. United States Government Accountability Office, "Rebuilding Iraq", Report to Congressional Committees, September, 2005, GAO-05-872. 

13. A. Alnasrawi, "Iraq: Economic Sanctions and Consequences, 1990-2000", Third World Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 2, April, 2001, pp. 205-218.

14. T. Donnelley, "Rebuilding America's Defenses", Project for the New American Century, September, 2000, Washington, DC: PNAC. 

15. Pilger, The War You Don't See.

16. D. Miller, "Information Dominance: The Philosophy of Total Propaganda Control", Cold Type, January, 2004.

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