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by Ron Forthofer
In addition, we are now finally discovering the damage done to this nation and its people by the rush to build more and more nuclear weapons. The contamination at Rocky Flats is but one sad example of this insanity. Our military and scientists lied to us about the impacts of radiation on miners (many of whom were American Indians), on U.S. soldiers deliberately exposed to radiation during tests, on people living downwind of the blasts, and on civilians used as guinea pigs in experiments. Our land continues to be poisoned with nuclear waste, and we still don't fully realize the extent of the contamination of our watersheds.
Despite all these horrors, we have not learned and we continue to target civilians in our efforts to "make the world safe for democracy." Unfortunately, a quote from Seneca the Younger still applies:
We are mad not only individually but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?On the 45th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, August 6, 1990, another weapon of mass destruction was launched against civilians. On this day, the economic sanctions against Iraq were put into place, sanctions that have remained in place for nine years. Over 1.3 million innocent Iraqi civilians have died as a result of these sanctions, the war and its aftermath. Six hundred thousand of these deaths were children under the age of five. In addition, approximately 30% of Iraqi children under five are chronically malnourished because of the sanctions.
It is the U.S. that is forcing the UN to continue these barbaric sanctions against the Iraqi people. It is the U.S. that is responsible for the deaths of these innocents. President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright have both said that it didn’t matter whether or not Iraq complied with the UN Security Council resolutions. We would not lift the sanctions as long as Saddam Hussein remained in power. Three of the permanent members of the Security Council - China, France and Russia - and most, if not all, of the other members are for lifting the sanctions.
Secretary of Madeleine Albright stated her position on the effects on the sanctions on "60 Minutes".
When asked about the deaths of over 500,000 Iraqi children due to the sanctions, Secretary of State Albright said "we think the price, the price is worth it."Do you agree?
Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who evidently doesn’t care much about his people. The world would probably be a safer place if he were not the leader of Iraq. However, his being in power does not justify our violating the UN Charter; it does not justify our killing 1.3 million innocents by starvation and disease - agonizing slow and painful deaths.
Unless we act, our elected officials will continue to support this policy which has led to the deaths of over 5% of Iraq’s population. Proportionately, it is as if over 13 million U.S. citizens had been killed. As awful as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, their damage and devastation do not compare to what we have done and are continuing to do to Iraq. Unless we act, it makes a mockery of the vow "never again".