U.S. blockades kill

People's Weekly World, 25 October 1997

The U.S.-enforced blockade of Iraq over the past six years has caused the death of 1.2 million Iraqis including three-quarters of a million children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO reports that about 4,500 people are dying each month from food shortages traceable to the embargo. The suffering continues even though the UN is permitting Iraq to sell a small amount of crude oil with the income earmarked for food, medicine and other vital necessities.

Imposed in the name of forcing Saddam Hussein to disclose and/or dismantle weapons of mass destruction, the blockade is nothing short of criminal genocide against the people of Iraq. What shameful hypocrisy that the U.S. poses as a crusader for arms control measures against other countries while reaping billions of dollars as the world's leading profiteer in global production and sale of weapons of mass destruction!

Now, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is twisting arms to win support in the U.N. Security Council for a resolution that would actually extend and tighten the embargo. France and Russia are reportedly balking. Egypt and other Arab nations are demanding an end of embargos against both Iraq and Libya. We wholeheartedly endorse efforts to terminate these blockades, one of the main weapons of U.S. world domination. We would add that the U.S. embargo of Cuba and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea inflicts cruel hardship on their peoples and should be terminated as well.

We would be foolish to rely on diplomats to lead the way in fighting to end these blockades. It is our government that conceived the blockade and is the main enforcer. Therefore, it is our duty to speak out loud and clear demanding that it be lifted now! Furthermore, the people of these nations are clearly suffering. We should demand a sharp increase in real humanitarian and development aid to these nations via the U.N.