MERIP Issue on Iraq

[Rania Masri <rrmasri@DELETETHISunity.ncsu.edu>]

Dear all,

The Middle East Report's summer issue will focus on "Iraq: Ten Years of
Devastation," and specifically on the effect of the sanctions and of the
US-UK policy toward the Iraqi people.  The table of contacts (including
contributors and articles) is included in text format.

This 48-page issue on Iraq is useful to activists -- both as a resource in
and of itself, and as an educational tool for others.

MERIP is offering special bulk-rates and activist rates for purchase of
this issue. MERIP is prepared to offer copies at a special bulk rate
discount, as follows:

3,000 copies:  $2 per copy  
2,000 copies: $2.35 per copy 
1,000 copies: $2.70 per copy
500 copies: $3.00
100 copies: $3.50 per copy
10 copies: $3.75 per copy
1 copy: $4  (special activist rate)
        
Newstand cost: $9-$13, depending on the mark-up

Shipping will be addition (at cost), from the printer in Pennsylvania.  
MERIP can ship overseas.

MERIP is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate and inform
the public about the contemporary Middle East.  It publishes pamphlets and
primers on critical issues, but its major program is Middle East Report,
an award-winning quarterly magazine. MER is known for its independent,
critical analysis of current events and trends.  The organization is not
funded by any government, special interest group or corporation, and is
thus able to publish perspectives on the regions most pressing and
controversial issues.

For more information about the issue, please contact Terry Walz (Executive
Director of MERIP) at: Tel - 202 223-3677 or E-mail - twalz@merip.org

- Rania Masri

P.S. Please forward this message
Preliminary Roster
Middle East Report #215
Summer 2000
Iraq: A Decade of Devastation

Layout and design done by June 10

Issue Development Team: Phyllis Bennis (Director), Joe Stork, Laurie King-Irani, Chris Toensing 
(Editor)
Total Word Count: 34133


The Issue
Ten years have passed since Iraq's ill-considered invasion of Kuwait, the US-led allied military 
response to this event, the imposition of a punishing sanctions regime and the hardening of futile 
and unproductive US policies towards the Iraqi regime. The past decade has also witnessed a 
dramatic militarization of the Gulf region, a US and UK-led undercutting of international law and 
the role of the United Nations, as well as civilian deaths and environmental devastation as a 
result of the 1991 war and the sanctions regime  (particularly from the use of depleted uranium).  
As a result of the devastation of Iraq, activist organizations have mobilized in the US and Europe 
to question and challenge US policies, particularly the continuation of sanctions, but few critics 
of sanctions have also focused on the detrimental nature of the Iraqi regime and its role in the 
continued suffering of the Iraqi people. This issue of Middle East Report attempts a wide as well 
as an incisive assessment of Iraq's decade of devastation, with the aim of exploring and advancing 
alternatives to sanctions and a cessation of the suffering of the Iraqi people.


Authors and Articles:

BENNIS, Phyllis: Assessing US Policy Ten Years Later. 3000 words. Will focus on the militarization 
of the Gulf region and the subversion of international law and the United Nations by bilateral 
US-UK initiatives.

GRAHAM-BROWN, Sarah: The Failure of the Sanctions Regime. 3000 words. Will focus on the 
humanitarian impact of the sanctions, and provide a critique of the sanctions using comparisons 
with the sanctions regimes imposed on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

AL-KHAFAJI, Isam. Socioeconomic and Political Transformations in Postwar Iraq. 3000 words. Will 
identify emerging opposition currents in Iraq (if any) as part of a comprehensive assessment of the 
social structure fashioned by sanctions and Saddam Husayn's response.  Accompanied by boxed chart 
showing "Oppositions at a Glance."

GARFIELD, Richard. Responding to Sanctions: Comparisons between Iraq and Cuba.  3000 words 
(received). Compares the declining social indicators in Iraq with significantly better ones in 
Cuba, suggesting that regime response to sanctions can play a major role in mitigating popular 
suffering.

FERNEA, B.J. One Village's Response to War and Sanctions. 2180 words (received). Revisits village 
of Daghara where she and her husband had lived forty-five years ago to find gains in education, 
public health, and hope for the future seriously undermined.

RYAN, Curtis. Iraqi-Jordanian Relations Ten Years Later. 2500 words. Will focus on Jordan's loss of 
its major trading partner and the influx of Iraqi exiles into Jordan in examining these vital 
bilateral relations.

HILTERMANN, Joost. Elusive Justice: War Crimes Tribunals. 2678 words (received). Evaluates the 
possibilities for prosecuting the Iraqi regime for war crimes as an alternative to sanctions, and 
questions the US opposition to this idea.

LYNCH, Marc. Keeping It Together: The Politics of Consensus in the Gulf. 2500 words. Will assess 
the wobbly international consensus on policy toward Iraq, focusing on the views of other Security 
council members, and asking if the lack of strong consensus has rendered sanctions ineffective.

LAWRENCE, David A.  Kurds in Northern Iraq. 2000 words. Will evaluate the political and economic 
circumstances of Iraq's Kurds after ten years of war and sanctions.

HALLIDAY, Fred. Letter from Kuwait. 3550 words (received). Surveys the political scene in Kuwait 
ten years after the war, showing the strategies employed by the royal family to forestall 
democratization and greater freedoms for women.

PETERSON, Scott. Boxed Update on Depleted Uranium. 800 words. Will update the scientific findings 
on the long-term effects of allied use of depleted uranium ammunition during the war, and official 
denials of these effects.

KELLY, Kathy. What About the Incubators? 1125 words (received). A moving account by the prominent 
American activist of worsening conditions in Iraqi childrens' hospitals, and the efforts of Iraqi 
doctors to soldier on.  

GUSTAFSON, Eric. Review of "Three Kings." 1000 words. Will place the box-office hit in political 
context, focusing on the critical message of the movie, and the actual politics of former US 
soldiers who fought in the Gulf War.


Front Matter:

LUNA STEIN, Rebecca. Israeli TV Dramas. 1000 words. Will offer a critical viewing of recent Israeli 
TV dramas, and their attempts to render Palestinians invisible.

YOUNG, Michael. The Disappeared in Lebanon. 1500 words. Will update efforts to locate 'disappeared' 
Lebanese political activists.

SOVICH, Nina. The Sad State of Palestinian Unions. 1500 words (received). Offers a pointed critique 
of Arafat's cooptation of formerly independent labor unions, and labor leaders' collaboration.



For informed and engaged analysis of the Middle East, visit our website:
http://www.merip.org

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Terry Walz
Middle East Research and Information Project
1500 Massachusetts Avenue, NW,  Suite 119
Washington, DC  20005
Tel: (202) 223-3677; Fax: (202) 223-3604