MER Article The Public Health Impact of Sanctions Throughout the 1990s, social conditions in Iraq have deteriorated to levels last experienced three and four decades ago. This decline is associated with a dramatic reduction of the gross national product from around $3,500 to under $700 per capita, but changes in the GNP do not tell the entire story Richard Garfield • 12 min read
MER Article Sanctioning Iraq After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 triggered the imposition of international economic sanctions, it was widely believed that the Gulf crisis would be rapidly resolved. The scale of Iraq's military defeat in the 1991 Gulf war suggested that the government would accept ceasefire terms, Sarah J Graham-Brown • 13 min read
MER Article "And They Called It Peace" Ten years ago, on August 2, 1990, US policy in, toward and around Iraq dramatically changed course. From close if sometimes distasteful allies, Baghdad's government and its leader, Saddam Hussein, were transformed overnight into Washington's public enemy number one: "Hitler!" thundered President George Bush. Phyllis Bennis • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2000) In the spring of 1995, a special issue of Middle East Report offered a damning assessment of US and Allied policy toward Iraq since the Gulf war: Economic sanctions imposed to topple the Iraqi government were punishing the Iraqi people instead. Over five years later, little and much has changed. UNI The Editors • 2 min read
Current Analysis "They Dignified Our University" In February 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger held a "town meeting" at Ohio State University to rally public support for a new round of bombing of Iraq. Despite the administration's careful orchestration of the Fadia Rafeedie, Nadine Naber • 7 min read
Current Analysis The Situation in Iraq: Democracy Cannot Be Manufactured at Foggy Bottom or the Pentagon Few members of Congress are critical of US policy toward Iraq; fewer still are those willing to go public in their criticism of that policy. Not representative Cynthia McKinney. She is one of four members of congress who decided to send their senior aides on a fact-finding tour to Iraq Laurie King-Irani • 6 min read
Current Analysis UNICEF Establishes Blame in Iraq UNICEF'S recent reports on child mortality in Iraq provided ready fuel for the ongoing propaganda war over the future of sanctions. Iraq's representative at the UN has spoken of a "genocide" caused by sanctions while US and United Kingdom spokespersons, completely ignoring the sanctions' impact sinc Sarah J Graham-Brown • 6 min read
MER Article "The Bombing Has Started Again" I recently informed an editor of a national news program about a delegation of Nobel laureates who planned to visit Iraq in March. He responded that “Iraq’s not on the screen now that the bombing has stopped.” A puzzling response, since on that very day, the US had bombed seven sites in Iraq. Kathy Kelly • 2 min read
MER Article "Sanctions Have an Impact on All of Us" The following comments are excerpted from a speech delivered on Capitol Hill on October 6, 1998 by Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, shortly after he resigned his post in protest over the sanctions’ devastating impact on the Iraqi people. Denis Halliday • 2 min read
MER Article Protesting Sanctions Against Iraq Aida Dabbas is program officer for the Jordanian-American Binational Fulbright Commission in Amman. She has been an active opponent of the sanctions against Iraq and of the US arms buildup in the region. Jillian Schwedler, an editor of this magazine, spoke with her by telephone in June. You recentl Jillian Schwedler • 6 min read
MER Article The Containment Myth Among those who direct American foreign policy, there is near unanimity that the collapse of communism represents a kind of zero hour. The end of the Cold War so transformed the geopolitical landscape as to render the present era historically discontinuous from the epoch that preceded it. Policy mak Stephen Hubbell • 11 min read
MER Article Iraqi Sanctions, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Six years of the most severe Security Council sanctions in history have failed to dislodge the regime of President Saddam Hussein. These sanctions, however, have had a devastating impact on the most vulnerable sectors of Iraqi society, especially children. [1] Numerous studies by UN agencies and independent groups, including an Roger Normand • 14 min read
