the UN & Iraq - Sanction

à ce moment je ne veux plus étudier pour mon examen de francais - je l'ai étudié pour beaucoup de heures aujourd'hui. Je me suis revée depuis 8h ce matin pour étudier le francais.

The UN & Iraq - The Sanction

In the early 90s 800000 Iraqi people lost their lives due to a sanction imposed by the UN (supported by countries such as Canada, the US). They deemed Saddam Hussein was a "bad guy" and he was going to tear down the Western countries through the uses of nuclear weapons (kind of ironic since the Western countries give Iraq some of its first more advance weapons).

The UN deemed a sanction on Iraq was necessary; they strangled Iraq economically. Iraq was not allowed to import or export anything, for example, Iraq could not import chlorine. The UN feared Hussein would use the chlorine to build weapons - this is understandable, but with all things, there is another side to it. No chlorine doesn't just mean Hussein can't build chlorine based weapons; it also means there is no clean water. The people of Iraq had to drink unfiltered, contaminated water. During the time of the sanction, sewage filled homes and even full city blocks - imaging living in these conditions.

Hospitals in Iraq became badly equipped because of the sanction. Disinfectants, cough syrup, and parts for ambulances were lacking - in one of the only videos released (by CBS) during this time period, concerning the sanction and the conditions in Iraq, a mother is told her child can not receive any cough syrup because there is none left. At another hospital 4 babies had to share a broken incubator - the doctors can not fix the incubator because no parts can be imported from the West. During the time period of 1999-early 2003 over 1/2 million children died - most of these days were due to the sanction placed.

And what was Saddam Hussein doing at this time? During this time period, Hussein was building palaces and enjoying life - and most likely importing material needs by the means of illegal importation. The sanction placed by the UN did not do much in terms of limiting Hussein's moves for anything can be imported if one has a Swiss bank account. On the other hand, the sanction destroyed the lives of thousands of the average Iraqi.

Sanctions don't work, this is only one example of the failure a sanction holds. History has proven this, yet we continue to go down that familiar path to destruction - as of this moment there are very serious talks in sanction Iran b/c of their nuclear program. I agree with the fact Iran shouldn't have nuclear weapons (personally I don't think anyone should have access to nuclear weapons) but I really think a sanction will only, once again, destroy the lives of the average Iranian and only that.

"Everytime history repeats itself, the price goes up" - Ronald Wright

Is it not "fishy" that there are so few released details about the lives of Iraqis during the sanction period?

What are the governments hiding?

How can we get around the perceptions they build up to get to the truth?

Is history all perception?