Anthony Arnove - Iraq Under Siege, Updated Edition: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War

IRAQ UNDER SIEGE

THE DEADLY IMPACT OF SANCTIONS AND WAR

EDITED BY ANTHONY ARNOVE

NOAM CHOMSKY KATHY KELLY JOHN PILGER ALI ABUNIMAH PHYLLIS BENNIS NASEER ARURI DAVID BARSAMIAN ROBERT FISK RANIA MASRI HOWARD ZINN AND OTHERS

UPDATED EDITION

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NEW AFTERWORD BY DENIS HALLIDAY

For more than a decade, an inhuman campaign of sanctionsthe most complete ever in recorded historyhas destroyed Iraq as a modem state, decimated its people, and ruined its agriculture, its educational and health care systems, as well as its entire infrastructure. All this has been done by the United States and United Kingdom, misusing United Nations resolutions against innocent civilians, leaving the tyrant Saddam Hussein more or less untouched. This remarkable book is an invaluable documentation of the tragedy in Iraq, and deserves reading by every citizen interested in the appalling reality of US and UK foreign policy.

Edward W. Said

This book gives us a key to understand the New World Order, and warns about how Iraqs tragedy may be a model for global bullying and global impunity in coming times.

Eduardo Galeano

Here is a brilliandy collated body of unrelenting, undeniable evidence of the horrors that sanctions and war are visiting upon the people, in particular the children, of Iraq. For ordinary citizens sanctions are just another kind of dictatorship. Remote-controlled, seemingly civilized, they actually, literally, squeeze the very breath from babies bodies.

Arundhati Roy

The arguments for change are pretty convincing. The undecided should pay heed.

The Economist

This is a very important book and I hope it will be widely read.

Tony Benn, MP British Parliament (in the Mjv Statesman)

Iraq Under Siege is a very useful weapon in our international struggle against sanctions. This is not only the horrible story of children dying as a result of sanctions, a story our papers are so reluctant to write about. It is also a well argued warning about the kind of globalized world they will build for us, if we let them.

Daniel Singer, The Nation

Each page is a document of outrage.

Socialist Worker, US

A sustained, coherent, and comprehensive critique of US policy on Iraq.

Texas Observer

Iraq Under Siege is a remarkable collection of analytical essays, emotive calls to action, and useful to-do lists for activists. It must be read. And it must be acted on.

Z Magazine

The first book to grant a glimpse behind the veil of ideology and propaganda that shrouds the contemporary official record.

Sean Gonsalves, Common Dreams News Center

This is a definitive and powerful indictment of one of the greatest war crimes of the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Bookmarks Review of Books

A brilliant book, which exposes the grim reality behind the US New World Order and British ethical foreign policy.

Socialist Worker, UK

Scrupulously edited for accuracy, readability, and diversity of voice, [it] works either as a good introduction to the crisis in Iraq or a resource for activists.

The Socialist

The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War Updated Edition

With essays by:

Ali Abunimah

Dr. Huda S. Ammash Anthony Amove Naseer Aruri

Barbara Nimri Aziz David Barsamian Phyllis Bennis George Capaccio Noam Chomsky Robert Fisk

Denis J. Halliday Kathy Kelly Rania Masri Dr. Peter L. Pellett

John Pilger Sharon Smith Voices in the Wilderness Howard Zinn

South End Press Cambridge, Massachusetts

Copyright 2000 and 2002 by Anthony Amove.

Any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequential words may be used without permission, as long as the total number of words quoted does not exceed 2,000. For longer quotations or for a greater number of total words, please write for permission to South End Press.

Cover design by Ellen P. Shapiro.

Cover photo by Karen Robinson/Format.

Page design and production by Alyssa Hassan and the South End Press collective.

Printed in Canada.

Library of Congress Control Number

2002113627

ISBN: 0-89608-697-6 (pbk.) ISBN 0-89608-698-4 (cloth)

South End Press, 7 Brookline Street, #1, Cambridge, MA 02139-4146

www. southendpress. org

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Acknowledgments and Note to the Updated Edition

Introduction to the Updated Edition (2002)

• Part I: The Roots of US/UK Policy

• 1. America's War Against Iraq: 1990-2002

• 2. Iraq: The Impact of Sanctions and US Policy

Phyllis Bennis and Denis J. Halliday; Interviewed by David Barsamian 53

• 3. US Iraq Policy: Motives and Consequences

• Part 2: Myths and Realities

• 4. Collateral Damage

• 5. Myths and Realities Regarding Iraq and Sanctions

• 6. The Media's Deadly Spin on Iraq

• 7. The Hidden War

• 8. One Iraqi's Story

• Part 3: Life Under Sanctions

• 9. Raising Voices: The Children of Iraq, 1990-1999

• 10. TargetsNot Victims

• 11. Sanctions: Killing a Country and a People

• Part 4: Documenting the Impact of Sanctions

• 12. Sanctions, Food, Nutrition, and Health in Iraq

• 13. Toxic Pollution, the Gulf War, and Sanctions

• Part 5: Activist Responses

• 14. Sanctions Are Weapons of Mass Destruction

Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said, Howard Zinn, et al. 217

• 15. Building the Movement to End Sanctions

Acknowledgments and Note to the Updated Edition

When people have asked me if I would edit an updated edition of Iraq Under Siege, my answer has always been nothat I hoped the book would soon become historically obsolete and gather dust on a library shelf as a chronicle of a time that had passed. Tragically, not only for the people of Iraq but for those around the globe who hope for an alternative to the daily violence of this world, it is more relevant today than when it was first published. The drive to escalated war, even perhaps occupation, is intensifying. In October 2002, the US Congress gave President George Bush a blank check to pre-emptively attack Iraq, making the likelihood of war even greater. The sanctions continue. The no-fly zone bombings continue. And so do the lies used to justify the dehumanization and destruction of the Iraqi people, the lies that the authors of this book systematically challenge.

After the Bush II administration launched its war on the world (selling it as an endless war on terrorism), it became clear to many of the people who worked on Iraq Under Siege that a new edition was needed. Alexander Dwinell, Jill Petty, Loie Hayes, Tina Beyene, and Vijay Shah took part in the discussion that led to this new edition. In particular, Alexander and Tina put in long hours of editorial and production work to make the new book possible. I am especially grateful to Alexander for his valuable editorial suggestions and assistance.

I am deeply indebted to all the authors of the first edition of Iraq Under Siege. If time had permitted, there is no doubt that all of them could have contributed new insights to this edition. And, if space had permitted, there are many more voices I would have liked to have added. But given the urgency of the project, we chose to focus on updating six chapters: the Introduction and the chapters by Naseer Aruri, Voices in the Wilderness, Ali Abunimah and Rania Masri, Peter L. Pellett, and Sharon Smith. Denis Halliday, the former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq who courageously resigned that position and has been a leading anti-sanctions and anti-war activist since, kindly contributed a new afterword. I am grateful to all of the contributors who updated their chapters on unusually short notice, especially to Jeff Guntzel of Voices in the Wilderness, as well as to James A. Paul, the executive director of the Global Policy Forum, who kindly allowed Voices in the Wilderness and South End Press to use excerpts of his valuable research on oil interests in Iraq and the Middle East in Myths and Realities Regarding Iraq and Sanctions.