Monday, September 25, 2000

              The U.N. has humane alternatives for dealing with Iraq

              Regarding your Sept. 19 editorial about the Iraq sanctions ("Sanctions Must
              Stay"), you endorse a policy that has brought about the deaths of 600,000
              children under age 5.

              You hold that those enacting the sanctions are in no way responsible for
              this situation, implying that we who oppose the sanctions have dangerous and
              naive compassion. Presumably, we are just too weak to grasp the harsh
              necessities of the new world order. We lack your magical power to know
              Saddam Hussein's future threat with this level of certainty and your
              "strength" to overcome the dangerous temptation of compassion for a
              half-million babies. But everyone knows perfectly that these babies are
              absolutely innocent and should not be used as necessary sacrifices.

              The "box and key" of the sanctions constitute a simplistic paradigm for
              which there are many alternatives. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and
              Saddam Hussen must "think outside the box."

              To imply that there's just no other way is not an appropriate answer.
              Military sanctions could continue. A powerful deterrence capability could
              remain installed. Change in Iraq could come most swiftly through improved
              relations and increased information via media and cultural detente. Beyond
              these lie possibilities for real peacemaking which, if funded as well as the
              military, would surely yield real results.

              This has moved well beyond some necessary moral harshness in the name of
              future safety or cruel-to-be-kind compassion. You would never endorse using
              nuclear weapons in a situation like this. Yet the sanctions kill as many.

              The reasoning in your editorial (that there's just no other way) has
              revealed itself to be as violent as Hussein's. The United Nations is to
              blame for putting the blame entirely on one brutal dictator. Saddam Hussein
              and Madeleine Albright are both wrong. And so is the Post-Gazette.
 

              TOM BLANCATO
              Franklin Park