EDITORIAL PR blitz wont hide real issue in
Iraq
Just two days before the five
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council met in London Sept. 15
to consider the future course of action in Iraq, the Clinton administration
unleashed a public relations blitz designed to neutralize criticism of the
severe economic sanctions imposed on Iraq.
State Department Spokesman James P. Rubin lashed out at critics of
the U.S.-inspired embargo, challenging the charges that the nine-year embargo
had caused the deaths of a half million Iraqi children. Armed with aerial
photographs and a newly released State Department report on Iraq, Rubin charged
that Saddam Hussein was building an elaborate resort complex near Baghdad,
including an amusement park, sports stadiums and special hospitals for members
of his political party.
He said the photos also showed villages that had recently been
bulldozed by Saddams operatives because they had been hotbeds of
anti-government activity. Despite its claims that the people of Iraq are
dying due to a lack of food and medicine, Saddam Hussein doesnt hesitate
to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for the entertainment of Baath party
officials and cadres, Rubin said.
It was a crafty tactic, one designed to force critics of the
sanctions into the position of having to defend Saddam Hussein. We do not and
never have defended Saddam Hussein. His character and leadership are not the
issues. The central issue remains a moral one that deals with the dire effect
the sanctions are having on the most vulnerable people in Iraqi society,
especially its women and children.
No one we know who opposes the sanctions is an apologist for
Saddam Hussein, his brutal tactics or his excesses. Pope John Paul II is not an
apologist for Saddam Hussein.
As for the State Departments charges, it should be no
surprise to anyone that Saddam Hussein and his cronies would have access to
money. No matter how severe the sanctions, the borders cant be sealed
completely, and Iraq has an abundance of what everyone else wants -- oil.
Rubin tries to make the case now that the sanctions, in effect,
are not working, that Saddam is flush with cash and that the country is able to
procure whatever it needs. The fault lies solely with the regime: It either has
failed to distribute goods or to order food, medicine and other necessary
items. But that assessment flies in the face of years of consistent testimony
of high-level U.N. personnel who have observed the oil-for-food program at
ground level. It contradicts the most recent U.N. study of the condition of
women and children in Iraq, which listed the sanctions as a leading cause of
the suffering of ordinary people.
It contradicts the substantial experience of the Iraqi people, who
enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the region prior to the Gulf
War, with universal education and health care. Iraq was widely recognized,
despite the brutality of Saddam Hussein against some segments of the
population, as one of the most progressive Arab countries.
And it further contradicts the assessment of the U.S. government,
which has consistently sought a consensus of other nations to continue the
sanctions, believing they would soon lead to a popular uprising and overthrow
of Saddam Hussein.
No one needs to defend the regime to express compassion for the
children and women who are being lost or to mourn the loss of civilization and
the humanizing elements of Iraqi society in pursuit of a policy that has not
worked from the start. We never won the war, we have not secured the peace, nor
have we overthrown the regime. We have succeeded only in making life
unimaginably miserable for common Iraqis. Washington and much of the rest of
the world are finally waking up to this reality.
The recent U.N. report; the impending visit to Iraq of Pope John
Paul II; the grudging interest of six members of Congress who recently sent a
delegation of aides to Iraq against the strong objections of the State
Department and the CIA; and the disintegrating support for the embargo among
other Gulf States, members of the Security Council and other Western allies --
all these elements show that the cover is coming off what has been a largely
hidden war whose victims are average Iraqis.
At press time, it appeared that Security Council members had
conducted fruitful discussions on taking a new direction in Iraq. The
particulars are not yet revealed, but the parties apparently intended to
continue the talks in coming weeks in New York.
The United States would best serve itself and the innocents in
Iraq by abandoning the bluster and window-dressing and by working for a
compromise. Ending the sanctions would allow Iraq to import the food necessary
to stem starvation, the spare parts and machinery to repair water delivery and
sewage treatment systems, and the medicines to treat curable illnesses now
killing thousands of Iraqi children each month.
National Catholic Reporter, September 24,
1999
|