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It is today extremely rare for U.S./UK officials to argue against the seriousness of Iraq's humanitarian situation. Nowadays, the issue on the table is blame. Is this disaster a consequence of the sanctions, or of Saddam's manipulation of same? Dr. Peter Pellet sees a simple dichotomy. "The main question of the sanctions is: Are we actually aiming at the regime while suffering unfortunate collateral damage in the form of civilian casualties? Or are we specifically aiming at the civilian population to put pressure on the regime? The latter is not an acceptable policy." Essayist James Carroll is more blunt. Targeting civilians to pressure Saddam's regime is, he writes, the moral equivalent of No Gun Ri: "the strategy of shooting through the innocent, as if babies were bits of foliage". Here's an initial list of the mechanisms by which the West specifically pressured Iraqi civilians: 1) Targeting of civilian infrastructure during the Gulf War; 2) Deliberate underfunding of oil-for-food (revenue caps lasted until 12/99) ; and 3) Destructive manipulation of OFF logistics via Committee 661 bureaucracy and contractual holds. Any suggestions?/additions? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk