Everything that legally enters Iraq has to be approved by a UN committee. Even little things are prohibited, such as baking soda, paints, shampoo, hearing aids, light bulbs, pencils and shoe polish. The prohibitions also extend to textbooks, magazines and books. Nothing bigger than an envelope, for example, can be mailed from the United States. Many doctors in Iraq subscribe to the New England Journal of Medicine .
Medical textbooks are years out of date.
Today, the effects of the Gulf War and the sanctions are evident everywhere. Electricity is cut off for hours each day. Children are begging in the streets. The sanitation system is destroyed. Before the war, obesity was a problem among Iraqi children.