iraqi doctors speak out on deaths of childern during period of sanctions

[The Mad Monk]

How could he build any more if it was that tight?

You know how he lived -- we all do. It just dosen't jibe with the whole 'starving from sanctions' bit.

[Spiffor]

Even though I think the doctor is spinning out a little about how Saddam used all his money for the military (I suppose it is the common Iraqi knowledge he's repeating, and common knowledge is usually exaggerated), I trust him on the corpse-parade thing. That alone is disgusting .

I think it is a huge stretch to tell everything could have been fine if it wasn't for evil Saddam (the "we could have got all the medication we needed" thing), but I don't doubt Saddam has deprived his population of basic services such as food and drugs for his agenda.

However, the UN sanctions made it impossible for Iraq to rebuild an independant agriculture and an autonomous medication industry (for basic products). And that has been bad for the parts of Iraq which weren't well connected to the trade routes

[Urban Ranger]

The flip side is, of course, if there were no sanctions, the children wouldn't have suffered and died.

[The Mad Monk]

The flip flip side, is if Saddam hadn't thumbed his nose at the UN, there would be no sanctions.

[Jac de Molay]

Even if that's the case, innocent people were made to suffer based on the obstinance of one man. I don't think that's fair or humane regardless of what saddam did and didn't do.

[The Mad Monk]

You're right, of course.

We should have invaded years ago.

[Edan]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk We should have invaded years ago.

Or finished the job the first time around.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
The flip flip side, is if Saddam hadn't thumbed his nose at the UN, there would be no sanctions.

Lets not forget the sanction was mostly an US idea, even after it has been shown repeatedly that sanction doesn't work as intended.

[Ming]

And let's not forget why the sanctions were put in place in the first place

[Urban Ranger]

Putting a useless yet antagonising measure in place is certainly indicative of the sort of thinking going on in the US admin at the time.

[Lord Merciless]

The sanctions were put in place to prevent Saddam from rebuilding his forces. In this aspect, the sanctions were remarkably successful.

The dilemma with the sanction is:
- We can't really allow Saddam to rearm himself after making him our mortal enemy.

- The sanction was hurting Iraqi people pretty badly, even though Saddam bore the brunt of the responsibility.