Bush pushes Saddam to play by the rules
Matthew Osburn
senior
This letter is in response to Peter Quaranto's Nov. 14 letter concerning the UN sanctions leveled against Iraq after the Gulf War. In his letter, he cites the many problems that the Iraqi people have had to suffer through since the sanctions were introduced to Iraq over 10 years ago. Quaranto wants us to believe that the United States is currently participating in some sort of "genocide attempt upon the Iraqi people."
All of the hardships described in the letter are true and it is true that the hardships are largely due to the lack of resources available to the Iraqi people after the sanctions. But it is not the fault of the UN or the United States that the people of Iraq are not getting the resources they need to survive.
It is the fault of Saddam Hussein that his people are dying in record numbers. The sanctions leveled against Iraq were meant to restrict Saddam's ability to rebuild his army and restrict his ability to develop and produce weapons of mass destruction by restricting the amount of resources available to Iraq.
The sanctions also specify what Saddam is allowed to do with the resources allowed to reach Iraq. The problem is that when faced with restricted resources, Saddam chose to use his limited resources to rebuild his army instead of feed his own people and no one in the previous administration seemed to care to hold him to his side of the bargain.
Standing armies require, if nothing else, a lot of money. Instead of using state funds to buy food to feed starving children, or to buy medical supplies to help the dying or to spend money upgrading sewage systems to help decontaminate the water supply, Saddam has chosen to spend that money protecting himself with rebuilt republican guard units. That is the reason the Iraqi people are dying, not because of unfair or unrealistic UN sanctions.
The sanctions are structured so that Iraq can trade to make enough money and acquire enough resources to function as a peaceful state. Since Saddam does not have the resources to both build an army and provide for his people, he chose the former. And in withholding the resources of his country from his people, he gives those people, through state propaganda, the exact same arguments that Quaranto tries to give us. Saddam tells his people that the UN and the U.S. are responsible for their suffering. He tells them that the sanctions are to blame for their lack of food and adequate health care, but that is just not true.
Now, as cited by Quaranto, the people of Iraq are confused as to why we need war after they have suffered, all the while the United States has tried to tell them that the sanctions were a better alternative to war. If the previous administration had been more concerned about holding Saddam to the terms of the sanctions, all of the suffering innocents in Iraq would be in much better condition and there would be no doubt in their mind that the sanctions are a good alternative to open war, and there would be no need for a possible upcoming war.
Quaranto also seems to be opposed to the fact that we might go to war over "unsubstantiated claims that Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction." If Saddam had been forced to follow the terms to which he agreed to at the end of the Gulf War, then the inspectors would know for certain whether Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and there would be no "unsubstantiated claims." The Bush administration is simply trying to hold Saddam accountable to his end of the sanctions and accountable to his people. If Hussein is unresponsive to these requests, then President Bush is prepared to go back to war with Iraq and hold Saddam accountable for his multiple violations, both with regards to the sanctions and in regards to human rights.
Supporting Bush in trying to hold Saddam accountable for promises he made to the world back in 1991 is not being a "militaristic hawk" or a "war-monger;" it is simply learning from the past. Learn from the past, mostly notably World War II, that appeasement of dictators never brings about change for the good. It only allows those dictators to continue to play the world for fools until they are ready to bring their games upon the rest of the world on their terms.
President Bush is just trying to make Saddam play according to rules that Hussein and the UN agreed to over a decade ago before it is too late and we are again forced to respond to an Iraqi threat as we did in the Gulf War.
Matthew Osburn
senior
O'Neill Hall
Nov. 14
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, November 18, 2002
