Iraq Timeline Part VII: "Economic Sanctions"

1991 AD
Economic sanctions, imposed in 1990, have a rapid and devastating effect on the Iraqi populace. A few months after the end of the Gulf War, a team from Harvard University comes to the conclusion that "since the sanctions have been imposed, the child mortality rate has doubled while the death rate among children under five has tripled." The U.N., after analyzing the crisis of economic sanctions, offers an "Oil for Food" program, which would allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies. Seemingly unmoved by the intense suffering of his own people, Saddam refuses the U.N.''s offer, calling the sanctions program an attack on Iraqi sovereignty. From the outset, it also appears as though Saddam will not give up his "weapons of mass destruction," the one concession the U.N. requires in order for the sanctions to be lifted. Strategically, Saddam feels that these weapons, as a potential threat against rebel groups, is perhaps the only things keeping him in power. George Bush, by issuing the following statement, implies that sanctions should continue to be imposed even if Saddam dismantles his chemical arsenal: "At this juncture, my view is that we don''t want to lift these sanctions as long as Saddam Hussein is in power." [10]

The humanitarian crisis escalates, harming every aspect of Iraqi life and Iraqi social institutions. "With no electricity, 15 million gallons of untreated sewage bypassed sanitation pumps and flowed into the Tigris each day. Doctors trained by some of the best medical institutions in the West performed surgery by flashlight in dark hospitals. On the streets, peddlers sold oil lamps to those in need of light just as the Mesopotamians had done three thousand years ago." Over time, international resistance to sanctions grows. To many it seems as though "the United States, as the hard-line proponent of sanctions [appears] no more concerned about the suffering of the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein." As Iraqis continue to die in large numbers, the Ba''ath appear no closer to disarmament and Saddam Hussein''s despotic power over his country has been strengthened-rather than weakened-by U.S. and U.N. policies. By 1995 the Iraqi economy is in such disrepair that the Iraqi dinar, once worth three U.S. dollars, falls to the value of 1/2,500th dollars [11]-less than a penny. In order to pay for even simple goods and services, Iraqis are forced to carry around stacks of dinars by the cartload. The money is barely worth the paper that it is printed on.

1996 AD
Saddam finally agrees to the U.N. "Oil for Food" program." Food gradually becomes more plentiful in Iraq. But, due to a combination of malice and incompetence from the regime, the medical supplies sent to Iraq often do not end up in the hands of those who needed it the most. The Iraqi government refuses to distribute the supplies to areas suspected of harboring dissenters against Saddam''s regime, and the supplies meant for Iraqi citizens turn up in the markets of Syria and Jordan. [12]

The United States, in its role on the U.N. security council, scrutinizes every legally imported item into Iraq in search of "dual use" supplies and equipment-virtually anything and everything that could potentially be used as part of a weapon. Even seemingly harmless items like graphite pencils, computers, tires, car parts and scientific journals are blocked at entry points. [13] These stringent red-tape restrictions also result in the painful hindrance of humanitarian relief efforts. The regime of Saddam Hussein, the U.N. and the United States seem to collide in a stalemate over sanctions, resulting in the deaths of millions of Iraqis and the total and utter devastation of Iraqi society. In the political game, each side ends up blaming the other, refusing to accept any responsibility for the growing humanitarian crisis. Both parties seem more concerned with winning the sanctions war than they are with preserving the lives of Iraqi citizens.