An examination of US Foreign Policy: The effect of economic sanctions on Iraq
Part 1: Background and Introduction
Sanctions: Economic Warfare
Economic sanctions are defined by www.investorwords.com as: Restrictions upon international trade and finance that one country imposes on another for political reasons.
-Sanctions, as the former United States President Woodrow Wilson put it, "provide a peaceful, silent and deadly remedy," a form of unarmed warfare. (Source 1)
-Sanctions have become increasingly popular over the last 50 years as a substitute to actual military warfare, and the United States are the nation to employ them most frequently.
-Sanctions are employed to put pressure on the targeted government, but only 33% of sanctions worldwide have accomplished their objectives, and more often than not, it is the people of the targeted nation who suffer most from sanctions.
-Sanctions usually involve restrictions on all goods going in and out of the country, with the exception of food and basic medicines. Unfortunately, in the case of the Iraq sanctions, even these were withheld for a time, exacting a great human toll.
A Timeline of Sanctions on Iraq (1990-2003)
-UN Resolution 661 (6 August, 1990): Halts all exports from Iraq, halts all imports except for medicine (and food in times of humanitarian crisis).
-UN Resolution 706 (15 August, 1991): Allows Iraq to export $1.6bn of oil to purchase food, medicines, and pay war reparations to Kuwait (refused by Saddam Husayn).
-UN Resolution 986 (14 April, 1995): (Oil for Food) Allows Iraq to export $1bn of oil every 90 days to purchase food.
Kuwait and the Gulf War
-In 1990, the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait under land claims to Kuwait (Kuwait was part of Iraq until 1928) and complaints that Kuwaiti oil exports were hurting the already-devastated Iraqi economy and were in violation of OPEC regulations (Kuwaiti oil production was 20% above their maximum permitted export capacity).
-The Security Council imposed blanket economic sanctions on Iraq in order to weaken them and force them to withdraw from Kuwait. A US-led military expedition successfully forced Iraq out of Kuwait, but the sanctions were kept in place due to the possession of illegal weapons of mass destruction by Iraq. (Source 2)
Devastation of Iraqi infrastructure
-During the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Iraq's telephone, electricity, road, water, and sewage systems were all damaged. Due to the sanctions, Iraq could not import the necessary repair parts.(Source 2)
-During the Gulf War, a 42 day bombing campaign of Iraq left the civilian infrastructure in ruins.
-18 of the country's 20 electricity plants were destroyed, leading to the shutting down of water purification facilities. Untreated sewage water flowed into the country's rivers, contaminating the supply of drinking water and leading to the rapid spread of infectious diseases.(Source 2)
-For the last 12 years, American and British warplanes have bombed Iraqi infrastructure in the "No Fly Zone" (a U.S./U.K. imposed area where Iraqi planes are not allowed to fly over), destroying military targets as well as economic infrastructure, such as oil production facilities and communications facilities.
-The combination of damages during the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, and continued American and British bombing, as well as sanctions making it impossible to repair the damaged facilities, have prevented any possible economic recovery for Iraq.
Justifications for Sanctions
-The sanctions were first justified as a tool to bring Iraq to their knees during the Gulf War, but they remained in place to punish Iraq for possession of illegal weapons of mass destruction. Interestingly enough, no searches thus far in Iraq have turned up any illegal weapons of mass destruction.
-In 1995, head UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said Iraq was 98% disarmed.
"Iraq is a defanged tiger."- Scott Ritter(Source 4)
-The sanctions were also meant to weaken Saddam Husayn's hold on power. Ironically, they have had the adverse effect of consolidating and strengthening Saddam Husayn's power base by making the higher classes of Iraqi society dependent on Saddam Husayn, causing their interests to be tied to his staying in power.
Part 2: Economic Impact
Exports and Imports
-Exports and imports have all but stopped in Iraq, with the exception of foods and some basic medicines.
-Iraq was always allowed to import foodstuffs, but they were not allowed to export anything so the country did not have any money to pay for food. This continued until 1996 when Iraq was allowed to export a certain amount of oil and use the funds to purchase food (Oil for Food Program).
-Oil is also smuggled out of Iraq to Turkey, and Saddam Husayn uses these funds to build up his military and finance his expensive Presidential Palaces.
Production and Economic Activity
Iraqi oil production
-Industrial production has dropped by 70% since the advent of the sanctions because factories cannot purchase replacement parts or import the necessary raw materials for production, such as steel or rubber.(Source 5)
-Many factories have shut down because the electrical power generators that supplied the factories with energy were destroyed during the war.
-Most farmers were driven out of business because infectious diseases have wiped out over 80% of Iraq's cattle.
The Currency Crisis
-In 1990, .31 Iraq dinars were worth 1 USD. Today, it is 1000 Iraqi dinars to the dollar.
-Currency has depreciated to 3200 times less than its value in 1990, without a major change in wages. Consequently, most Iraqis lost any savings they had and many were forced to sell their homes and furniture to put food on the table.(Source 5)
"First I sold my television, then my furniture, then my car, then my house," said Mohammed Abdul Razaq, a retired office worker. "Everything that I built up over a lifetime is gone. A bomb is something you hear far away, or at worst, it kills you in a second. Sanctions kill you every day."(Source 7)
Oil For Food
Food Imports into Iraq
-UN food imports, mainly from the United States and Australia, undercut Iraqi farmers and drive many of them out of business, exacerbating the food shortage.(Source 2)
-This also has the effect of making ordinary Iraqis increasingly dependent on UN aid.
Cereal Production
As UN and Red Cross aid flows into Iraq, local food industries are driven out of business, decreasing food production inside of Iraq.
-Iraqis in specialized job classes have been forced to give up their jobs and become taxi drivers and cigarette vendors. Engineers, doctors, technicians, and other jobs necessary to run and industrialized economy are disappearing and since most universities have closed down, there are no new ones being trained.
Part 3: Impact on Health and Living Conditions
Disease
-Diseases that were not present in Iraq before 1990 have begun to spread, notably cholera and typhoid.
-Much of this is attributed to the contamination of drinking water, since the sewage system has broken down in Iraq.
-Normal Iraqis don't have access to basic medicines because of their supposed military capabilities, and many die of simple ilnesses such as the common cold.
-Pollution and sewage in rivers have killed many fish and made the rest unsafe to eat.
The socialist government formerly had a program to eradicate disease-carrying insects such as mosquitos, but this program has been discontinued due to government bankruptcy and mosquitos play a large role in the spread of disease.
This child suffers from measles and will probably die due to lack of vaccination.
Malnutrition
-Malnutrition has become a leading cause of death among children under 5 in Iraq.
-Young children and their mothers are not able to access vital proteins, minerals and vitamins necessary for good health.
-The percentage of malnourished children (under 5) in Iraq has jumped from 9% in 1991 to 26% in 1996.
Malnutrition levels in Iraq for children under 5.
Over 1/4 of children under 5 suffered from chronic malnutrition by 1996. Since then, the Oil for Food program has had some effect.
-The calorie intake per capita has declined 32% since the Gulf War.(Source 9)
-Iraq has traditionally been a food importer because so much of the land is desert and not arable.
-Iraq imported almost no food until 1996, when the Oil For Food program started.
-The Oil For Food program has helped somewhat, but many food shipments are delayed by the UN Sanctions Committee and others are diverted by Saddam Husayn to feed his starving military.
This graph portrays the rising percentage of babies born underweight. This is due to the declining health of Iraqi mothers.
Decline of the Iraqi Healthcare System
-The national Iraqi healthcare system, once arguably the best in the Middle East, is now in ruins.
-The socialist-style healthcare system is now destroyed because the government can no longer afford to repair damaged facilities or buy new equipment.
-The ban importation of most medicines and medical technology (x-ray machines) has caused the facilities to be very poorly equipped.
-Ambulances have also been blocked because of their assumed military application.
-Electricity supply is poor in Iraq and most hospitals are only able to stay open 8-12 hours a day.
-The UN are not allowed to teach Iraqi doctors (or teachers) and the general level of expertise in the medical field is declining.
Overall Impact: Deaths
This graph shows the rise in deaths of children under 5 years of age.
-In July 1989, 400 children per month under the age of 5 died in Iraq. In July 1998 (9 years later), the number was an estimated 6500 per month (78,000 per year). An increase of 16 times as many deaths in 9 years of sanctions.(Source 7)
The lifespan of the average Iraqi has declined from 67 years in 1990 to 58 years in 2000.(Source 8)
Part 4: Impact on Social Life, Crime, and Religion
Education
-Due to the ban on importing pencils, schoolbooks, and computers, all of which apparently have military applications, the quality of eduction in Iraq is deteriorating daily.
-The state-funded education system in Iraq has disappeared, and now many parents who cannot afford to send their kids to school are forced to send them to work instead. This is causing a rise in the uneducated and illiterate population and will make economic recovery for Iraq difficult.
-Child labor, which was unheard of in Iraq before the sanctions, is now on the rise.
-Other children are forced to beg in the streets, something never seen before in Iraq and something that is looked down upon greatly in Islamic countries. Many of these children are orphans.
The Rise of Crime
-Crime, which was almost unheard of in Iraq before 1990, is now sharply rising.
-Carjackings take place daily in Baghdad, and prostitution is becoming the only source of income for many families.
-Saddam Husayn has taken increasingly repressive and brutal measures to stifle the rise of crime, sometimes employing capital punishment (execution) for crimes as small as thievery, and life in prison for the practice of prostitution.
Disintegration of the Family
-Traditional family values are waning in Iraq as divorce rates go up and marriage rates go down.
-Many unemployed fathers (unemployment is 60% in Iraq), humiliated by their inability to provide, abandon their families and responsibilities, much like in the American Great Depression of the 1930's.(Source 6)
-As the children are sent to work or beg in the streets and mothers are forced to work for pennies or become prostitutes, families spend less time together and Islamic family values are on the decline.
Marriage is growing more rare in Iraq each day.
Religion
-The role of religion in daily life as well as in law in Iraq has changed fundamentally since 1990.
-The government of Iraq, which used to be the most secular country in the Middle East, is now becoming more religious and less secular as Saddam Husayn tries desparately to please other Islamic governments in the Middle East.
-The government also builds one mosque per year (pictured below) to impress local Islamic governments. These projects are very expensive and take money out of funds that go toward feeding the people.
-Women are losing some freedoms enjoyed previously due to the implementation of religious law in some areas of Iraq. Iraq still the only (Islamic) country in the region where it is not mandatory for a woman to wear headscarves in public.
-Religious freedoms once enjoyed by Christians and Jews in Iraq are now gone.
-Religious fundamentalism, long subdued by prosperity, is now on the rise, and many of the impoverished youth of Iraq are being brainwashed at religious schools, the only ones their parents can afford to send them to.
Martyr's Mosque, Baghdad
Part 5: The Blame Game
A U.S. Perspective
Madeleine Albright
-There has been a lot of finger-pointing over the last 10 years over who is to blame for the deaths of 1 million Iraqi civilians.
-Saddam Husayn attributes the sanctions as the sole source of the misery of the Iraqi people, and the US blame Saddam Husayn's brutal regime.
-In reality, neither party is guiltless and both could have taken actions to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people.
-"We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And - and you know, is the price worth it?"
Madeleine Albright (at that time, US Ambassador to the UN):
"I think this is a very hard choice, but the price - we think the price is worth it."
"I believe that the fact that Iraqi children are dying is not the fault of the United States, but of Saddam Husayn. And I think it is ridiculous for the United States to be blamed for the dictatorial and cruel, barbaric ways that Saddam Husayn treats his people ... So you can't lay that guilt trip on me."(Source 3)
-The U.S. also say they should not be the only one blamed, after all it is a UN sanction and not a U.S. sanction and other countries are participating.
-In fact, all attempts to remove or ease the sanctions in the UN have been vetoed by the United States, and as you will see from this pie chart, over 95% of the blocked imports are from the United States.
The Role of Saddam Husayn
Saddam Husayn
-For his part, Saddam Husayn is not guiltless either.
-Saddam Husayn has tried to block the Oil For Food program, claiming it is an impingement on Iraqi sovereignty, and by doing this delayed most humanitarian aid into Iraq for 5 years.
-Saddam Husayn has also used money acquired by smuggling oil to Turkey toward the strengthening of his military and the creation of glorious presidential palaces.
-Husayn has also been known to maximize the suffering of the Iraqi people as a propaganda spectacle to garner sympathy from the international community.
Sujud Presidential Palace, Baghdad
Inside Basra Presidential Palace
Part 6: Conclusions, and lasting impressions
-12 years after the initial implementation of sanctions, 1 million Iraqis are dead from starvation, disease, and malnutrition.
-The situation was made much worse by the unwillingness to compromise between the US and Iraq, even when millions of lives were at stake.
-Economic sanctions have caused immense hardship to the Iraqi people, yet the original goal of weakening Saddam Husayn's regime completely failed. Gulf War II caused 5500-7000 civilian deaths (www.iraqbodycount.com), but sanctions caused more than 100 times that amount. It leads me to question which course of action was more humanitarian.
-The lack of concern for human life by both sides is disgusting, and in the future hopefully life will be valued more.
-Hopefully the world can learn from this experience that sanctions are not an easy, harmless alternative to war and diplomacy.
A Happy Ending!
-Almost all of the sanctions were lifted on May 27, 2003, exactly 1 week ago. Everything except weapons can now be traded across Iraqi borders.
-US companies are already moving in to help with the Reconstruction process.
-"Oil can now be exported to finance reconstruction and humanitarian needs."- Treasury Secretary John Snow.(Source 10)
-Not surprisingly, Iraqi oil exports have doubled in the past week.
-Although much of Iraq is still in anarchy, the fear of Saddam Husayn is gone and in its place are hope and determination to rebuild a nation. Iraq will soon leave behind the sanctions-era, plagued by starvation and disease, and "return to normalcy".
