The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear Dirk and others,
Dirk writes "The second article is an
accusation of the Iraqi minister of Transport and Communications. This kind of
articles appear often in the Iraqi press. I don't see why they shouldn't be
trusted. Or am I wrong? This subject makes a good topic for a more profound
discussion."
If plausible and can be coroborated then why
not trust them? People in Iraq are in a much better position to comment on the
reality of sanctions than the most well-meaning people here. And it's true that
government and media lie a lot, but they sometimes tell the truth, especially
when things are so awful already that no mileage is to be gained from
exaggeration, eg. 11 Sept. in the US. Things are alot worse than that in Iraq,
aren't they? I heard an interview with Tariq Aziz a while ago, in which he
explained, wearily how sanctions were killing Iraqi children.
Some anti-sanctions campaigners would say this kind of source lacks
"credibility" and should not be used in campaigning. But Aziz was telling
the truth. Instead of Unicef's words about sanctions "contributing" in some
vague way to the deaths of children, which could be stretched to mean
anything, he's pointing out the main fact, which is that we are killing
children in cold blood. Political mass murder. I mean the data from the
Unicef survey is really important, but as it ignores causation, it lends
itself to self-interested interpretaions by noble crusaders like Blair and Bush.
I have not read the Iraqi press, but I bet it's infinitely more accurate and
honest about the effects of sanctions than our own.
Best, Tim
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