Killing the Children of Iraq

I am a firm believer that the current military activities in Iraq are only phase 3 of the ongoing war on Iraq since 1990. Phase 1 was the 1991 “first gulf war” followed by phase 2 which was the 13 years of US/UK backed UN sanctions.

I lived with my family in Baghdad during all the phase 1 and 2 and nearly 3 years of the phase 3 (in all 16 years) before I was forced flee my country for our safety.

What makes the following film important to me is that it documents thing that I have seen while I visited the same Basra hospitals, seeing the same horrifying picture of children suffering from cancer due to the US military using Depleted Uranium (DU) in the Area.

I spent 2 days talking to the same D.r Jenan and Dr. Jwad Al-Ali and others in Basra in 2001. I spent one day taking radiation measurement in and around Basra. Destroyed Iraqi military vehicles and the destroyed oil pumping station showed a very high and dangerous radiation levels.

A study, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published 1995 in the prestigious British medical journal BMJ concluded that the deaths of more than 560000 children can be attributed to the UN's sanctions.

Few months later US Ambassador Madeleine Albright was asked by 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”. Albright responded, “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”. Click and see it. It is so repulsive!!!

Madam Albright nothing in the world justify killing half a million children ever. The technical definition of the crime of GENOCIDE is (when persons are killed for WHO THEY ARE and not for WHAT THEY HAVE DONE). Those children were killed because THEY WERE IRAQIS, they could NOT have done anything AT ALL. It is a crime committed against innocent civilian CHILDREN for God sake!!.

CRIMES committed by dictators should NOT be the yard stick with which America is to be judged!! Surely America should be judged by a higher standard than that of dictatorships. Damn you Madam Albright you brought SHAME to your country.

Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq
A documentary film by John Pilger

After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations (backed strongly by the US and UK) imposed harsh sanctions on Iraq that lasted for 10 years (1991-2001); the harsh restrictions on imports of everything, including access to key medicines, resulted in over a million deaths, more than half a million of which were women and children. That's more deaths than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan and 9/11 combined. The purpose was regime change, but it never came. The overwhelming majority of those killed were the poor, elderly, women and children. Empirically, sanctions overwhelmingly punish the poor, the destitute. While the sanctions were in place, the richest people in control of the resources (Saddam Hussein et al.) still had everything they wanted: food, cars, mansions, access to the best medicines, etc. Award-winning journalist John Pilger has documented the reality of UN harsh sanctions in this hard-hitting film.

Click to see the Film