Iraq: Under Siege
Anthony Arnove
South End Press
‘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 Said
‘This book gives us a key to understand the New World Order, and warns about how Iraq’s tragedy may be a model for global bullying and global impunity in coming times.
Eduardo Galeano, author. Open Veins of Latin America
In this moving new collection, leading voices against the sanctions document the human, environmental, and social toll of the United States-led war against Iraq, ending with concrete ideas on how people can help end the sanctions.
The last nine years of bombing and sanctions imposed on Iraq have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, many of them children under five. Because the sanctions have prevented Iraq from importing basic necessities, easily preventable diseases have taken a devastating toll on the Iraqi people, while Saddam Hussein and his powerful friends remain unaffected.
Carefully documented, thoroughly researched, and written in clear language, Iraq Under Siege will be invaluable for anyone wanting to understand the roots of US policy in Iraq and the Middle East.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Introduction
Anthony Amove / 9
Part I: The Roots of US / UK Policy
1. America's War Against Iraq: 1990-1999
Naseer Aruri / 23
2. Iraq: The Impact of Sanctions and US Policy
Phyllis Bennis and Denis J. Halliday; Interviewed by David Barsamian / 35
3. US Iraq Policy: Motives and Consequences
Noam Chomsky / 47
Part 2: Myths and Realities
4. Collateral Damage
John Pilger / 59
5. Myths and Realities Regarding Iraq and Sanctions
Voices in the Wilderness / 67
6. The Media's Deadly Spin on Iraq
Ali Abunimah and Rania Masri / 77
7. The Hidden War
Robert Fisk / 93
8. One Iraqi's Story
Howard Zinn / 105
Part 3: Life Under Sanctions
9. Raising Voices: The Children of Iraq, 1990-1999
Kathy Kelly / 111
10. Targets Not Victims
Barbara Nimri Aziz / 127
11. Sanctions: Killing a Country and a People
George Capaccio / 137
Part 4: Documenting the Impact of Sanctions
12. Sanctions, Food, Nutrition, and Health in Iraq
Dr. Peter L. Pellett / 151
13. Toxic Pollution, the Gulf War, and Sanctions
Dr. Huda S. Ammash / 169
Part 5: Activist Responses
14. Sanctions Are Weapons of Mass Destruction
Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Edward Said, Howard Zinn, et al. / 181
15. Building the Movement to End Sanctions
Sharon Smith / 185
16. Resources: Organizations Working to End Sanctions on Iraq / 199
About the Authors / 201
Index / 205
About South End Press / 217
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR IRAQ UNDER SIEGE
For almost a full decade, an inhuman campaign of sanctions the most complete ever in recorded history has destroyed Iraq as a modern 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 ciuzen interested in the appalling reality of US and UK foreign policy.
Edward W. Said
This book gives us a key to understand die New World Order, and warns about how Iraq’s tragedy may be a model for global bullying and global impunity in coming times."
Eduardo Galeano
Iraq Under Siege is a solid, credible, and comprehensive rebuttal to the prevailing US / British policy of continued enforcement of cruel sanctions on the people of Iraq. It coincides with a heightened international consciousness that deliberate disregard for human suffering tends to numb and subsequently cripple the moral texture that underpins the pivotal role of conscience in human affairs. This anthology authored by prominent writers and practitioners constitutes a long-awaited corrective to the obvious imbalances that characterize much of die media coverage, which, in turn, often reflects a sickening obliviousness of policymakers to the unending miseries of a proud and gifted people. While some recent positive developments are dissemble, Iraq Under Siege will hopefully assist to expedite the required changes, facilitate the process, and enlighten the path. In this respect, the timing of this publication is most propitious and welcome.
Clovis Maksoud,
Center for the Global South
More Praise for Iraq Under Siege
By documenting the impact of the sanctions and exposing the fallacies and distorted arguments of the establishment and die bias of the media Iraq Under Siege makes a valuable contribution to breaking the silence and complacency that surround the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. This book is bound to contribute to the mainstreaming of the growing anti-sanctions movement, which is dedicated to helping the Iraqi people reclaim their destiny.
Hala Maksoud,
President, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
[Iraq Under Siege] is not just an amazingly useful tool to activists working to end the sanctions, but a very important work that adds to the growing literature on international relations, the mainstream media’s failure to include balanced coverage of this issue, [and] myths that cloud our vocabulary and understanding of the Middle East.
Fellowship Magazine
The first task ... for anyone who wants to get rid of the sanctions is to dismantle the massive cover-up that sustains what is an essentially genocidal policy. Iraq Under Siege was compiled to serve precisely such a role in the fight against the sanctions. The book brings together some of the most trenchant critics of US imperialism, like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, along with an array of specialists, activists, media critics, and academics. Each of the contributors takes on a different aspect of the sanctions. What is their impact on the Iraqi population? Who imposed them and why? What’s at stake for the US? How complicit is the media? How does the oil-for-food program really work? And, most importantly, what can we do to end the sanctions? Through its powerful eyewitness accounts of life in Iraq and carefully researched, myth-busting chapters, Iraq Under Siege provides a powerful antidote to our rulers’ lies and does a great service to the cause of ending the sanctions."
International Socialist Review
Acknowledgments
South End and Pluto Press books are always intensely collaborative projects. Iraq Under Siege is perhaps even more so than usual. Sonia Shah deserves special thanks for encouraging me to edit this book; Loie Hayes and Sonia Shah provided valuable editorial advice; and Lynn Lu, Anne Beech, and Kathleen May also gave much-needed support for this project.
Every one of the contributors to Iraq Under Siege deserves special thanks for their labors not only on this book, but to build the movement to end the war against Iraq.
Robert Jensen, Rahul Mahajan, Romi Mahajan, Stacey Gottlieb, Nagesh Rao, Erica Rubin, Sandy Adlers, Joe Richey, Niels Arons, and Chuck Quilty helped crucially with the preparation of several chapters.
Mathew Rothschild at The Progressive, Robert Fisk, The Independent, Boston Mobilization for Survival, David Barsamian, and The Link generously allowed us to use or reprint material for this anthology.
Philippe Rekacewicz and Le Monde diplomatique went to great lengths to provide the map that opens this book. Nikki van der Gaag, the staff at New Internationalist, Alison Reed at Fonnat, Karen Robinson, and Alan Pogue made available the powerful photographs in the book and on the cover, which was designed by Ellen P. Shapiro. Shea Dean copyedited the first draft of Iraq Under Siege, providing many useful editorial suggestions. Rania Masri, Ali Abunimah, Sami Deeb, Nick Arons, Glenn Camp, Richard Pond, Kathy Kelly, Bilal El-Amine, George Capaccio, Afruz Arnighi, Drew Harnre, Ellen Repelda, Gillian Russorn, and Stacey Gotdieb provided important endnote references, as did the many people who regularly disseminate information useful to the anti-sanctions movement.
My understanding of depleted uranium was aided critically by the generous assistance of Rosalie Bertell, Beatrice Boctor, and Dan Fahey.
I have had die privilege of having a family, friends, and allies who have taught me the meaning of Frederick Douglass’ slogan without struggle, there is no progress. There are too many to mention, but I would especially like to thank Nita Levison, Robert Amove, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Edward W. Said, Jason Yanowitz, Annie Zirin, Sharon Smith, Gillian Russorn, Elizabeth Terzakis, Bilal El-Amine, Bo Ekelund, and my many comrades in the International Socialist Organization, the Rhode Island Emergency Response Network, and the and-sanctions movement.
Introduction
Anthony Amove
In October 1999, the United States government faced a dilemma in Iraq. After eight years of enforcing a ‘no-fly zone’ in northern [and southern] Iraq, few military targets remain, explained the Wall Street Journal. "We’re down to the last outhouse, one unnamed US official protested. There are still some things left, but not many," noted another Pentagon source.1
The fact that the United Kingdom and United States have been unilaterally bombing Iraq almost even' other day since December 1998 has generally merited only one-paragraph notices in the New York Times' World Briefing section. In a rare instance when the bombing made the front page, the Times acknowledged.
American warplanes have methodically and with virtually no public discussion been attacking Iraq.
In the last eight months, American and British pilots have fired more than 1,100 missiles against 359 targets in Iraq.
This is triple the number of targets attacked in four furious days of strikes [on Iraq] in December [1998]....
By another measure, pilots have flown about two-thirds as many missions as Nato pilots flew over Yugoslavia in seventy-eight days of around-the-clock war there [in 1999].2
By the end of 1999, US and UK forces had flown more'than 6,000 sorties, dropped more than 1,800 bombs, and hit more than 450 targets.3 The Pentagon alone spent more than $1 billion to maintain its force of 200 airplanes, nineteen warships, and 22,000 troops who are part of the operation.4
The war on Iraq is the longest sustained US air operation since the Vietnam War. 3 As in Vietnam, the US government, with the help of its British ally, is consciously trying to keep its actions in Iraq isolated from public knowledge and criticism. The little-noticed but steady bombing of Iraq ... is much to [the Clinton administration’s] Hiring, the Wall Street Journal explained, because it preserves a stalemate that benefits the US and allows sanctions to remain, despite the devastating toll they are having on the Iraqi people.6
...
Anthony Arnove
Iraq: Under Siege
South End Press
South End Press
Iraq: Under Siege
The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War
Edited By Anthony Arnove
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 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 the South End Press collective.
Printed in Canada.
First edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Iraq under siege: the deadly impact of sanctions and war
edited by Anthony Amove,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-89608-619-4 (pbk.) ISBN 0-89608-620-8 (doth)
1. Economic sanctions Iraq. 2. Persian Gulf War, 1991 Economic aspects.
3. Iraq Economic conditions. I. Amove, Anthony, 1969
HF 1586.3 .173 2000
330.9567’0443 dc21
00-021052
South End Press, 7 Brookline Street, #1, Cambridge, MA 02139-4146
Southend@igc.org www.lbbs.org/sep/sep,htm
05 04 03 02 01 00 / 1 2 3 4 5 6
Cover photography by Karen Robinson
Format Cover design by Ellen Shapiro
With photographs by Alan Pogue and Nikki van der Gaag
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