I am deeply disturbed and offended by Dan Lindley's Nov. 18 letter concerning sanctions on Iraq,"Ills caused by sanctions don't make war wrong." Saddam Hussein did not choose sanctions. Instead, sanctions were imposed against Iraq in response to the invasion of Kuwait and were to be lifted upon the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from that country.

There have been no Iraqi troops occupying Kuwait for the last 11 years, but the sanctions have not been lifted. Instead, the criteria for lifting the sanctions was changed to require the destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

By the mid 1990s, U.N. inspectors were reporting that task had been basically accomplished, despite Iraqi obstruction. Contrary to popular perception, the inspectors were not ordered out by the Iraqi government, but withdrawn by the U.N. to prepare the U.S. bombings of December 1998. Meanwhile, the criteria for lifting the sanctions had again been changed to require the elimination of Iraq's capability to build chemical and biological weapons. This requirement led the inspectors to burn biology text books — the very same sort of books that many Notre Dame students will be purchasing at the Hammes Bookstore in preparation for next semester's biology classes.

There is a pattern here. Every time Iraq has gotten close to fulfilling the requirements of lifting the sanctions, the criteria have been changed to make it impossible for Iraq to comply. The latest resolution goes even farther by demanding total Iraqi compliance without making any provision for lifting the sanctions at all.

Let's be honest. The sanctions are being manipulated by the West, and the United States in particular, to control the Iraqi oil supply and the economic power that goes with it. To claim that Saddam Hussein "chose" the sanctions is nothing more that a transparent attempt to place the United States on the moral high ground and avoid admitting that we as a nation are complicit in the murder of half a million innocent children.

To hear a professor of Notre Dame make the claim is deeply disappointing. This is one of the best Universities in the country. I think that we have a right to expect better from our professors.

• Arbitrary sanctions on Iraq exist only to control oil
  
• Give the basketball team the support it deserves
  
• Walk with two feet of service
  
• Proposed ban on homosexual priests will create, not solve, problems for the Church
  
• Arbitrary sanctions on Iraq exist only to control oil
  
• Give the basketball team the support it deserves