Sanctions Against Iraq
* In August 1990, George Bush Sr. ordered the US military, working with other militaries, especially the British and French, to begin to enforce UN imposed sanctions against Iraq. The UN agreed to sanctions to punish Saddam Hussein for weapons of mass destruction and insure he would not be able to reacquire them. The sanctions were kept in place from 1990 to 2003, under Presidents Bush Sr., Clinton, and GW Bush. No unmonitored commercial trade was allowed between Iraq and the outside world. The geography of Iraq made it difficult to sneak through the blockade. No oil could be sold without permission, and Iraq could not buy any goods from other nations that could have a military use. But food and medicine were specifically allowed in.
* Most evidence shows the sanctions killed quite a few Iraqis, mostly children and elderly. Medicine was still very hard to get in spite of not being banned. Chlorine, used to purify water, could not be sold because of fears it could be used to make chlorine gas. Iraq was very dependent on oil. Its agriculture had declined and prior to war most food was imported.
* Estimates of the deaths ranged from 170,00 to 567,000. The charity UNICEF estimated half a million children under five years old died. A UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Denis Halladay, estimated 239,000. The Project on Defense Alternatives thought 170,000. Slate Explainer estimated 350,000. Columbia Professor of Nursing Richard Garfield estimated 345,000 to 530,000. Lancet medical journal had the highest estimate at 567,000.
* Though there were some who claimed estimates were too high, it is almost certain there were many deaths due to sanctions. So why are both Presidents Bush as well as Clinton not listed under wartime atrocities for sanctions? All three presidents played a role in sanctions, but so did the UN. It was the UN that voted these sanctions, and a mixed military force that enforced them. The largest number of military came from the US, but the operation was a UN operation.
* Not only that, all three presidents plus the UN made efforts to avoid Iraqis suffering and dying from sanctions. Medicine and food were both allowed. Under the sanctions Iraq traded food directly for oil. Sanctions began August 1990. By August 1991, the rules altered so Iraq could sell over a billion and a half dollars worth of oil for food. By 1996, the rules changed again to allow $5.6 billion of oil to be sold for food. Yet Iraqis clearly still starved and still died of disease when malnutrition made them vulnerable. Hundreds of thousands of children died from usually trivial illnesses like diarrhea that led to death by dehydration. What happened?
* One can see who the culprit was more clearly by looking to the north. In the UN and US protected zone for Kurds, the death rate was dramatically less, in fact lower than before the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein's regime was embezzling the money from oil. Many feared he might be trying to rebuild his arsenal. But he never again had chemical or biological weapons, despite the false claims of GW Bush and his administration. (See Section Four.) Most of his regime were content to simply steal for themselves.
* Thus the blame for the deaths goes to Saddam Hussein's regime. The only way to stop the regime from continuing to embezzle oil for food money would be to invade Iraq and overthrow them, something which, as we saw in the Second Iraq War, only led to even more deaths. In this case, these three presidents and the UN were faced with two horrifying options. The Iraqi people as well were caught in a Catch-22. The only way to end man made starvation and disease was to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But deprivation made much of the population too weak for revolt.