The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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It's a nice thought, Matt, but hardly realistic to expect from a chief executive who cannot find it in himself to deny China Most Favored Nation trading status a reward) nor deem Colombia or Mexico drug-involved, while "rewarding" the former with a proposed tripling of military aid, despite the fact that its drug exports to the US mushroom year by year. Peace, Ken Freeland Houston -----Original Message----- From: owner-adc-itf@leb.net [mailto:owner-adc-itf@leb.net]On Behalf Of Matthew Williams Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2000 8:19 PM To: ADC-ITF@leb.net Subject: [ADC-ITF] old US News article on sanctions I mentioned Here is the old US News & World Report article on sanctions I mentioned--it's from June 1998. It does discuss Iraq briefly, and the coverage is fair--better than one would expect from a mainstream periodical. In any case, it says that during the 70s and 80s sanctions were only effective less than 1/5 of the time (it cites a "free" market think tank as its source). I think this could potentially be a useful talking point for us as a movement--that sanctions generally don't work, explaining that South Africa was an exception, etc. Unfortunately, this article doesn't deal with why sanctions generally aren't successful--this would be interesting to know. I suspect that it many cases, the reasons are similar to Iraq: sanctions just hurts poor folks while leaving the elite relatively untouched, if annoyed; but that's simply my speculation. It's worth noting that the article ends with a suggestion that offering rewards to countries for cooperating might work better than trying to punish them. The idea of the US rewarding other countries for good behavior is, of course, morally problematic, but it's an idea to present to more mainstream people who want alternatives to sanctions. -- Matt Williams -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi