Iraq issue

[Terry Walz <twalz@DELETETHISmerip.org>]

Dear Friends:  Middle East Report will shortly publish a special issue on
Iraq that examines the current sanctions policies toward that country and
its devastating impact on its people.  I attach a text document of the
contents, along with ordering information.  If you have any questions about
the issue, please e-mail twalz@merip.org.  Thanks.
MIDDLE EAST REPORT #215
Summer 2000

* IRAQ: A DECADE OF DEVASTATION *


BACKGROUND
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 widely assesses 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:

GRAHAM-BROWN, Sarah: Sanctioning Iraq: A Failed Policy.  Focuses on the humanitarian impact of the 
sanctions, showing that economic sanctions in general are a blunt instrument with little chance of 
success.

BENNIS, Phyllis: And They Called It Peace: US Policy on Iraq.  Reviews the changes in official 
thinking behind the increasingly isolated US policy on Iraq.

LYNCH, Marc. Keeping It Together: The Politics of Consensus in the Gulf.  Assesses 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.

JABAR, Faleh A.  Shaykhs and Ideologues: Detribalization and Retribalization in Iraq.  Demonstrates 
how the Iraqi regime has exploited tribal loyalties to shore up its power.

GARFIELD, Richard. Responding to Sanctions: Comparisons between Iraq and Cuba.  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.

HILTERMANN, Joost. Elusive Justice: Trying to Try Saddam.  Evaluates the possibilities for 
prosecuting the Iraqi regime for war crimes as an alternative to sanctions, and exposes the US 
opposition to this idea.

RYAN, Curtis. Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Jordanian-Iraq Relations with Saddam Hussein's Regime. 
Focuses on Jordan's loss of its major trading partner and the influx of Iraqi exiles into Jordan in 
examining these vital bilateral relations.

Letters, Dispatches and Features:

LAWRENCE, David Aquila.  A Shaky De Facto Kurdistan. Evaluates the political and economic 
circumstances of Iraq's Kurds after ten years of war and sanctions.

FERNEA, Elizabeth Warnock.  Dispatch from Daghara: One Village's Response to War and Sanctions. 
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.

HALLIDAY, Fred. Letter from Kuwait. 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. Updates 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?   A moving account by the prominent American activist of 
worsening conditions in Iraqi children's' hospitals, and the efforts of Iraqi doctors to soldier 
on.  

BOXED ITEMS for activities like websites, and references to reports.

Interviews:

ANTI-SANCTIONS ACTIVISTS: A Group Interview


Reviews:

COLLA, Elliott.  Naveer Shamma, Iraqi oudist.


Shehadi Award Essay:

SOVICH, Nina. The Stifling Democracy within Palestinian Unions.  Offers a pointed critique of 
Arafat's cooptation of formerly independent labor unions, and labor leaders' collaboration.



To order copies:
Single issue is L12 (pounds sterling) in UK; $14 in Mexico, and $13 in USA
e-mail orders to : subscrip@blackwellpub.com; 
or call (United Kingdom) (44) 1-865-244-083; (United States) 1-800-835-6770.

More about Middle East Report, visit our website, www.merip.org




For informed and engaged analysis of the Middle East, visit our website:
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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