U.N. sanctions meant to avoid conflict

In UCLA alumnus Michael Schwartz’s April 18 submission,
“Operation Iraqi Freedom frees oil, kills civilians,”
he stated, “If it wasn’t for (the U.N. sanctions), the
Iraqi people would have overthrown Saddam a long time ago”
and the United States “starved the population (of Iraq)
throughout the 1990s by inflicting brutal economic sanctions which
killed half a million children.”

Upon reading these statements, I was stunned, for I held the
opinion that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the lack of
regime change and for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi, Kuwaiti,
Iranian, Israeli and Palestinian deaths. While Schwartz chose
to blame the United States quite vociferously, I choose to place
the blame solely where it belongs: on Hussein. 

Along that vein, I am writing for those of you who may not know
enough to make an informed decision regarding the nature of the
United Nation’s past 12 years of sanctions against Iraq. Let
me begin by providing a brief history of U.N. sanctions and
its impact on Iraq, before I elaborate further on why I, unlike
Schwartz, blame Hussein and not the United States.

Sanctions were initially imposed in 1990 by the United Nations
(Resolution 661) in reaction to Hussein’s invasion of
Kuwait. Sanctions were then extended in the 1991 cease-fire
(Resolution 687) to enforce Hussein’s promise to disarm and
end his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. These
sanctions, in hopes of drying up the Iraqi military, effectively
prevented the import of many common civilian items into Iraq and,
as Schwartz argued, starved the Iraqi population.

In recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in postwar
Iraq, the United Nations also created a special escrow account to
buy food and medicine for the general population. Initially,
Hussein refused to use the escrow account, because it was placed
outside of his control. Eventually, after five devastating
years, Hussein gave in to international pressure and
agreed to the Oil for Food program (Resolution 986), which was
essentially the same escrow account the United Nations had offered
in 1991.

Immediately Hussein started to circumvent the Oil for Food
program by selling oil on the black market, charging illegal
surtaxes. He also diverted Oil for Food funds to nonessential,
dual-use items, such as jeeps and trucks, which were eventually
converted for military use.

Amazingly Hussein’s policy of sacrificing the general
public’s welfare for his military ambitions did not begin in
1991, but in 1980, just one year after his rise to power. In 1980,
Hussein launched the Iran-Iraq war which lasted until 1988 and
ended with Iraq’s economy in complete shatters. With
billions of dollars in debt, a torn economy and a disabled
population, Hussein then launched the 1990 invasion of Kuwait,
which led to the United Nations imposing the current sanctions.

Many moral people had advocated lifting sanctions prior to the
coalition’s recent ouster of Hussein, with the well-intended
hope of helping the people of Iraq. In this particular case,
Schwartz argued that sanctions have kept Hussein in power, and he
went so far as to blame the United States for the deaths and
malnutrition in Iraq since 1990. From 1979 to 1991, Hussein did not
use money from the sale of oil to feed and take care of his people;
Hussein reduced a powerful, prosperous and proud nation to a weak,
impoverished and humiliated nation. He maintained power, while
continually killing his own people, waging incessant wars, and
engaging in innumerable humanitarian abuses. If the absence of
sanctions during Hussein’s years of rule (between 1979 to
1990) could not bring about a positive change in the regime,
economy or the general public’s welfare, then I cannot help
but wonder how the lifting of sanctions after 1991 would have
accomplished such ends.

While it is easy to blame the United States as a colonial power
and believe in conspiracy theories centered around oil, it is much
harder to realize that sometimes the world is not black and white.
Simple dichotomies of good and evil are not enough, and simple
caricatures of people as fascists, hypocrites or murderers do not
justify or ground an opinion. The sanctions were imposed for
moral and practical reasons: to prevent Hussein from obtaining
weapons of mass destruction and avoid future conflict. The
sanctions were imposed with the knowledge that some people would
suffer at the hands of Hussein, but it was ultimately enacted based
on the belief that in the end such actions would avoid unimaginable
death and destruction.

Choo is a fifth-year English student.