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Hey Ramsey, thanks for posting this on the list! I am sure Clinton knows that most of the points he made to defend the US sanctions on Iraq are either outright false or at best misleading. It is a revealing that the only way Clinton can support his inhuman policy is by telling a lie. Sandeep Ramsey Kysia wrote: > > http://www.democracynow.org/news/clinton.html > > AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, UN figures show that up to 5,000 > children a month die in Iraq because of the sanctions against Iraq. > > PRESIDENT CLINTON: (Overlap) That's not true. That's not true. And > that's not what they show. Let me just tell you something. Before the > sanctions, the year before the Gulf War, you said this ... how much > money did Iraq earn from oil? Answer - $16 billion. How much money did > Iraq earn last year from oil? How much money did they get, cash on the > barrel head, to Saddam Hussein? Answer - $19 billion that he can use > exclusively for food, for medicine, to develop his country. He's got more > money now, $3 billion a year more than he had nine years ago. > > If any child is without food or medicine or a roof over his or her head in > Iraq, it's because he is claiming the sanctions are doing it and sticking it > to his own children. We have worked like crazy to make sure that the > embargo only applies to his ability to reconstitute his weapon system > and his military statement. This is a guy who butchered the children of > his own country, who were Kurds, who were Shi'ites. > > He used chemical weapons on his own people, and he is now lying to the > world and claiming the mean old United States is killing his children. He > has more money today than he did before the embargo, and if they're > hungry or they are not getting medicine, it is his own fault. > > AMY GOODMAN: The past two UN heads of the program in Iraq have > quit, calling the US policy ... US/UN policy, genocidal. What is your > response to that? > > PRESIDENT CLINTON: They're wrong! They think that we should > reward ... Saddam Hussein says, I'm going to starve my kids unless you > let me buy nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. > If you let me do everything I want to do so I can get in a position to kill > and intimidate people again, then I will stop starving my kids. And so we > are supposed to assume responsibility for his misconduct. That's just > not right! I know they ... you know, the truth is a lot of these people want > to start doing business with Saddam Hussein again because they want > his money. > > And, and, you know, they want his ... the money he earns from oil. But > the ... it is an absolute fact that he has more money today than he did > before the embargo. So if any child is without food or medicine, it is > because he has made a deliberate decision to let them die, to try to build > up pressure to lift the embargo so he can spend that money however he > wants. He doesn't want to spend that money on his people. He wants to > spend that money to become the military dictator of the Middle East > again. > > Now, if people want to let him do it, that's one thing. But, you know, I > have consistently supported changing and relaxing the embargo since > I've been President, to make absolutely sure that he had enough money > and enough freedom in the use of the money to rebuild the country > economically, and to try to feed those children and get them medicine. > There were a lot of problems with the embargo in the beginning. There > were legitimate criticisms. > > But he now has more money with the absolute freedom to spend it on > food and medicine and development, and medical care of all kinds, than > he did before the embargo was put in. That's the fact. No one can dispute > that. So nobody can figure out why there are problems among the > children except that he won't spend the money on them. > > He spends the money on his own military, on his own crowd and he > avoids spending it on a lot of kids who need it so he can blame us, so he > can actually get total control over his money, so he can rebuild his > apparatus. > > GONZALO ABURTO: Mr. President (Overlap) > > PRESIDENT CLINTON: And, you know, remember, this is the only guy, > the only world leader today who has used chemical weapons on his own > citizens. And the American people in my judgement should give him all > the money he needs to take care of his kids. But should do everything > we can, and even if we are alone, to try to stop him from being in a > position of murdering his kids again, and murdering other children in the > Middle East. That's what I believe. > > -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> > eLerts > It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! > http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/790251/_/973698780/ > ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> > > ------------------------------------------------- > *** Iraq Action Coalition Discussion Forum *** > > http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html > ------------------------------------ > *To Post a message, send it to: iac-discussion@eGroups.com > *To Subscribe, send a blank message to: iac-discussion-subscribe@eGroups.com > *To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: iac-discussion-unsubscribe@eGroups.com > * To see the List Guidelines, go to: http://iraqaction.org/discussion.html > *Any questions, contact the List Moderator at rmasri@leb.net > ----------------------------------------------- -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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