But just as the military response wreaked havoc on the land and its people, economic sanctions have produced enormous suffering. And like bombing campaigns, the targets of the economic sanctions are not the ones actually victimized. The only outcomes economic sanctions have produced to date are increases in disease and mortality rates. As with the bombings, children have suffered the most from the economic sanctions. Infant mortality rates in Iraq have increased several fold since the sanctions were implemented.
Preventable diseases are rampant and many children suffer from malnourishment.
Economic sanctions and bombing campaigns are equally deadly. Both deprive people of fundamental human rights. Following the agreement between Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minsister Tariq Aziz providing for U.N. inspectors' access to all potential Iraqi weapons sites, the world enjoyed a brief respite from Clinton administration's saber rattling. But now that the inspection process has reportedly been subverted by Hussein, the U.S. has returned to threatening to unleash its military might against defenseless citizens again. This rationale remains dubious.