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Commentary :: International Relations

BTL:UN Ends Sanctions on Iraq, Giving US/UK Open-Ended Occupation Authority

Interview with Joy Gordon, Fairfield University philosophy professor, conducted by Between the Lines' Melinda Tuhus
U.N. Ends Sanctions on Iraq, Giving U.S./U.K. Open-Ended Occupation Authority

Interview with Joy Gordon, Fairfield University philosophy professor, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

After Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations, led by the U.S. and Britain, imposed comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq which devastated the nation's economy and infrastructure. Thirteen years of sanctions, which made it difficult for Baghdad to purchase medicines, fertilizer and other materials basic for health care, agriculture and sanitation, were -- by the U.N.'s own estimates -- responsible for the deaths of more than half a million Iraqi children.

But following the American-led war that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein, the U.S., now the occupying power in Iraq, prevailed on the U.N. Security Council to end the sanctions on May 22. This occurs as the U.S. occupation of Iraq continues to confront lawlessness, slow restoration of basic services and seething anger over the delay in establishing an interim government.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Joy Gordon, professor of philosophy at Fairfield University and author of "Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction," a widely circulated article published in Harper's Magazine. She discusses how the U.S. used the sanctions to cripple Iraq, and the respective roles the U.S. and U.N. will now have in establishing a new government in Baghdad and rebuilding the wartorn nation.

Joy Gordon's article, "Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction," appeared in the November 2002 edition of Harper's Magazine and can be read online at www.harpers.org

Gordon is author of the book, "A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics of Economic Sanctions," forthcoming from Harvard University Press.

Related links

* "The U.N. Has Capitulated," by Tariq Ali, The Guardian, May 24, 2003
* "Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet!" by Rahul Mahajan, CommonDreams.org, May 9, 2003

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