Sanctions constitute a serious breach of the United Nations charter on human rights and children's rights. Sanctions are a counter-productive, bankrupt concept that has led to unacceptable human suffering. The U.S. policy violates a number of basic tenets of international law, such as the Geneva Conventions prohibition of the use of starvation. Perhaps the biggest outrage is that the suffering imposed on innocent Iraqis has done nothing to advance real peace. The Iraqi people, living on the edge of survival, have few resources for pressing for constructive, democratic political change within Iraq.
Sanctions encourage isolation, alienation and fanaticism.
But, of course, democratic change is not the goal of U.S. policy in Iraq. As administration officials fumble with a plan for fomenting an overthrow of Hussein s government, it becomes increasingly clear that Clinton, like Bush before him, is scared of real democracy in Iraq and would prefer another iron-fisted dictator, but preferably one who follows U.S. orders. Let us not forget that at the conclusion of the 1991 war, the United States allowed Hussein s forces to use helicopter gunships to put down uprisings. Governments that might truly represent the people are feared by U.S. policymakers, given that those people sometimes have funny ideas about who should control the resources of their lands. Effective control of resources of the Middle East must remain, to the degree possible, solely in U.S. hands with the cooperation of compliant local governments.