Contracts for desperately needed equipment routinely get held up in the Security Council for months at a time. In a Feb. 2000 briefing to the Security Council, Executive Dir. Such holds aggravate the humanitarian crisis. In 1991, Iraq was forced into an unprecedented disarmament process and its military has been greatly reduced. The chemical, biological, nuclear and long-range ballistic missile programs that were a real threat in 1991 had, by 1998, been destroyed or rendered harmless.
Sanctions undermine U.S. interests , both in Iraq and throughout the region.
In targeting civilians, sanctions have fostered resentment among the Iraqi people toward the United States, not Saddam Hussein. They have strengthened Hussein's power and undermined institutions of civil society necessary for democratic change. Most Iraqi dissidents oppose economic sanctions. U.S. indifference to abject suffering in Iraq has elevated anti-American sentiment in the Arab world. Lifting economic sanctions would take a powerful propaganda weapon away from Saddam Hussein, who can currently blame the misery of the Iraqi people on the United States.