We in the IAC have been working to end the sanctions since they were instituted in 1990. The sanctions, really the most total blockade of any country in modern history, have never been an alternative to war. This blockade is enforced, as all blockades must be, by air, ground and naval forces. The sanctions are war, just as bombing is war. The hideous toll is more than one and a half million people dead, half children under the age of 5.
Iraqi society is devastated.
The only way that Iraq's deep crisis can be resolved is by ending the sanctions, so that Iraq can resume normal economic relations with other countries. We have taken medicine to Iraq as has the Middle East Children's Alliance, AFSC and other organizations. But it was a drop in the bucket for a country of 23 million. Even if it were possible for Iraq to obtain enough food and medicine, however, that by itself wouldn't solve the problem. Now, the leading cause of death for more than 5,000 Iraqi children every month is dysentery and diarrhea.