None Dare Call It Reason

Listening, I was also amazed. I wondered what this fellow knew about the modern history of Iraq. Did he know about the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report from 1990 that discussed methods at the outset of the first Gulf War for sabotaging Iraq's water treatment system? Did he know about the U.S. bombing raids then on Iraq's dams, pumping stations, municipal water and sewage facilities? Or how the post-war economic sanctions against Iraq included a ban on the chemicals and equipment needed to repair water and sanitation treatment facilities? Did he know about the approximately 500,000 children estimated to have died during the sanction years, deaths caused in significant number by disease related to the deterioration of the sanitation system? Ironically, Iraq actually began exporting electricity to Turkey in 1987. In those days the country's electrical system had been modernizing for a couple decades. In those days the Reagan Administration was also an ally of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Then Saddam's world of helicopter gunships, chemical weapons, torture and dictatorship were not a problem for the Republican White House. In those days Iraq was at war with Iran. Then Iran's nationalist revolution was considered the major threat to U.S. oil interests. If you're a torturer with oil, Washington has a way of rationalizing unpleasantries when they happen to dovetail with the year's policy agenda. But despite the encouragement (and arranging shipments of arms and money) from glad-handing Reagan envoy Donald Rumsfeld, Saddam's war with Iran exacted a heavy price not only in lives lost, but also in a shrinking gross domestic product. Thirteen years of economic sanctions and two wars later, Iraq is a country where prospects for a better life look about as bright as a distant star on a smoggy Los Angeles evening. More http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11634 print version http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=11634§ionID=1 Authors site http://www.mark-t-harris.com/

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