To the Editor:
Surely the entire university community shares in our pride when a professor has uncovered evidence of potential violations of humanitarian efforts by the United States government. The Mirror offers a valuable insight into these critical issues with its coverage of Prof. Joy Gordon’s article in “Cool War: Economic Sanctions as a Weapon of Mass Destruction” appearing in Harper’s.
As this moment, while complicated decisions are engaging diplomats and national leaders it is comforting to know that these tough questions are being asked by Prof. Gordon.
Nobody should question the spirit of her inquiry nor the quality of her hardhitting research. I would however like to question the statement in The Mirror‘s interview which quotes Dr. Gordon as saying that these policies are “being done in our name with our tax dollars” and that “it is our responsibility to see that our government does not engage in atrocities with our support.”
I was not aware that the U. S. government is purposefully and willfully engaged in “atrocities” with regard to its support of United Nations imposed sanctions against an outlaw regime, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Students might be well served to log on to the U. S. State Department’s website dealing with “Human Rights in Saddam’s Iraq” to counterbalance Dr. Gordon’s claims.
1. “Saddam Hussein uses ‘Oil-for-Food’ money to enrich himself and his family, rather than promote the basic welfare of the Iraqi people.
2. Iraq has always had the funds necessary to purchase food, medicines, and other humanitarian goods – without limit. It is the regime’s manipulation, diversion of funds, corruption and contempt for the welfare of the Iraqi people that have prevented goods from reaching the Iraqi people.”
3. Critics of U.S. policy…have leveled the false charge that international economic sanctions against the regime have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children form malnutrition or preventable diseases. These numbers, often repeated uncritically in the media, have been disavowed by United Nations organizations such as UNICEF.”
4. Hussein has viciously used chemical weapons against Iraqi citizens. No regime since WWII has killed and maimed so many people through the premeditated use of chemical agents. The regime’s documented chemical attacks form 1983-1988 have caused over 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths.
5. Iraqi citizens face arbitrary execution, religious persecution, and forced relocation.
With this minimal information about the documented conditions of horrifying human rights abuses in Iraq, it is difficult to see how U.N. sanctions or U.S. policies are not justified as a means of challenging this outlaw state by the community of nations. Any other ideas? What is your choice: street fighting in Baghdad versus denying this regime milk money? Or just forget about Iraq and wait for some surprise package of nerve gas to be opened at Rockefeller Center’s ice skating rink this Holiday Season? I guess that the destruction of Lower Manhattan last Sept. 11 and the loss of over 3,000 innocent lives was not enough evidence that this is a mean, mean world where bad, bad things are possible!
Yes, I could not agree enough with my colleague that the world is on the threshold of the gates of hell as the Iraq question moves towards military action this winter. But are the citizens and leaders of the United States trying to put out those fires? Or, as Dr. Gordon states, are we responsible for instigating this inferno of “atrocities?”
Sincerely, Philip Eliasoph Visual and Performing Arts
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