BLAME IT ON THE BULLS

Malcom Lagauche

Today, rarely a word is spoken about the embargo on Iraq that lasted from August 3, 1990 to May 2003. And, if it is mentioned, it is only in context of a long-forgotten aspect of the 16-year U.S.-Iraq war. Let’s take a brief look at how the sanctions came into being and then elaborate on the deceitful methods used to keep them in place. On August 3, 1990, the U.S. pushed a sanctions resolution through the U.N. After the cease-fire of the Gulf War, they were kept under certain conditions. Iraq could not have the sanctions lifted until it destroyed certain designated weapons, called weapons of mass destruction (WMD). At the time, two assessments were in place in the U.S.: (1) Iraq would never destroy all the WMD and if it tried, it would take years (2) Under such strict observation, the people of Iraq would rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein within six months. Saddam’s tenure surprised the U.S. administration, so, after about a year, the stated objective was to keep the embargo in place in perpetuity...

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