New York State of Mind

[jbor]

on 5/10/01 2:24 PM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

> Robert:
>> (And in reply to Otto's point about Iraq, I suspect much the same
> situation
>> has prevailed under Saddam's rule there since those economic sanctions
> were
>> imposed, and I truly wonder how many of the 500,000 children who have died
>> were actually from the already persecuted minorities within his state:
>> Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Mandaeans etc.)
>> 
> 
> Rob, this may be the case but Mrs. Albright did not use this explanation nor
> did she question the numbers. She just said that it was worth the price.

She has retracted the substance of those words on several occasions since
1996 I believe. I doubt that she or anyone else in the U.S. believes that
innocent Iraqi children deserve to die. I doubt that she believed it even as
she was speaking those words: in fact, isn't it also true that on that
interview the interviewer began to speak over the top of her before she had
even finished the sentence or had the chance to clarify her response?

Whatever the case might be with Madeleine Albright, I certainly don't
believe that 500,000 Iraqi children have deserved to die, and I'm not
particularly happy about your insinuation that I do.

> And
> this is a question everybody who defends the sanctions "has the clear
> obligation to answer".

I'm not defending them -- you brought the topic up. But don't you think
Saddam and his supporters need to shoulder at least some of the
responsibility for what has been happening in the state he rules over? Do
the UN sanctions forbid domestic or international aid agencies from
providing humanitarian relief in Iraq?

best