Americans recoiled at that. But we should also recoil at the collateral damage our economic sanctions are inflicting on the people of Iraq.
Former doctors peddle food at roadside stands.
The remnants of the business class have become Mafiosos dependent on enforced scarcity. Iraqi paper money, with its imposing bust of Saddam Hussein, buys almost nothing. Iraq was once a middle-income country. It had electricity, medicines, sanitary sewers and urban water safe to drink. Its health statistics were fairly good.