The next visit was connected with an international peace initiative. At that time, despite the fear of a new war in the Persian Gulf, the Iraqi community was again a vibrant one, the market was stocked full of goods, the children were happily going to school, the city buzzed with traffic for commercial enterprise, theaters, art, and music were a part of the average citizen's life. Then economic sanctions were placed on Iraq by the United Nations. Women and children are bearing the brunt of these sanctions. Women whose partners were lost were thrown into the job market to feed their children.
Divorce rates are up in two- parent families because of the stress and strain.
Girls are dropping out of school to help at home. Today the Iraqi people are consuming less than half the food and only one-eighth the medicine they did before the war. And women are withdrawing from political activity, unable to handle the added responsibilities. Now, as a vestige of the Iraqi War, a clear attack on the civilian population through a type of terror bombing is occurring - comprehensive economic sanctions . These sanctions sacrifice the health and prosperity of a whole people.