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Sanctions Against Iraq Be Removed as Soon as Possible
The sanction initiated by the United States against Iraq has continued for 10 years. Although Iraq has made strenuous efforts for the relief of sanctions, and the international community has repeatedly appealed for the release of sanctions against Iraq, the United States, however, has not untied Iraq. The more than 22 million innocent Iraqi people are still suffering all sorts of torments.
In the international public opinion, solution of the Iraq issue shouldn't be delayed indefinitely, and sanctions against Iraq should all the more be removed at the earliest possible date.
The US application of sanction against Iraq is aimed at getting rid of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. This, in itself, is a hegemonic act of interfering in the internal affairs, and encroachment on the sovereignty, of another country. The sanction is, in essence, to take the Iraqi people as "hostages".
The decade-long sanction has led to the economic depression of Iraq and the death of 1.5 million Iraqi people due to the shortage of doctors and medicine and undernourishment. According to a WHO report, the sanction has entailed the retrogression of 50 years of the Iraqi people's health level. This has once again exposed to the world the hypocrisy of the United States as it kept on prating about "human rights"
US sanction against Iraq is aimed not at upholding international justice, but rather at controlling this oil-rich strategic place in the Middle East, this is known to everybody. The United States pursues its own strategic interests in disregard of the life and death of the Iraqi people, this is indeed unpopular.
Recently, government officials and ordinary people of some countries went to Iraq in defiance of US opposition and by breaking through obstructions, airplanes of Russia, Germany and France also flew to Iraq despite the "prohibition". This fact shows that it has become increasingly difficult to continue the sanction against Iraq.
Imposing sanction on other countries at every turn is a typical feature of the practice of the hegemonists. It should be pointed out that sanction is a rapier, although it harms the object of sanctions, for the user of sanctions, it is not to have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Furthermore, history has proved that it has always been difficult for the use of this method to be successful. Today, when peace has become a trend of the world and economic globalization has been developing vigorously, the interests between countries are interwoven and linked to each other closely, the continued use of this method is all the more unworkable.
It is not that the United States itself has nothing to lose in its sanction against Iraq. Reports say that in maintaining its military moves in the "prohibited flying zone" in Iraq alone, the United States has to spend US$2 billion a year. US refusal to remove sanctions against Iraq has made it face a difficult choice: it may be either international sanctions exist in name only; or economically, the United States undertakes an increasingly heavy burden, morally, it meets with more and more international censure. Obviously, the best choice for the United States is to bring about a comprehensive, just and reasonable solution to the Iraq issue as soon as possible.
Children, Elderly Die Under Sanctions
Iraq says over 10,000 children and elderly people died in August as a direct result of the decade-old United Nations sanctions imposed on it.
The country's Health Ministry says the high mortality rate, due to malnutrition and medicine shortages caused by the sanctions, is in sharp contrast with the same month in 1989, when less than 800 children and elderly people died.
A ministry report says over 1.3 million people in Iraq have died since the trade embargo started in 1990.
Iraq has repeatedly called on the UN to lift the sanctions, which were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
By PD Online staff Liang Faming
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