Just one month ago, US/ UK bombardment of Iraq seemed almost inevitable. Even though the most comprehensive economic sanctions ever inflicted in modern history have already crippled Iraq, slaughtering over 1/2 million children under age 5, the US and the UK were poised for further assault. Today, the US still threatens air attacks upon Iraq, massive strikes that would heap more agony on civilians who've endured a seven year state of siege.

From previous trips, we knew exactly where to find overwhelming evidence of a weapon of mass destruction. Inspectors have only to enter the wards of any hospital in Iraq to see that the sanctions themselves are a lethal weapon, destroying the lives of Iraq's most vulnerable people. In children's wards, tiny victims writhe in pain, on blood-stained mats, bereft of anesthetics and antibiotics. Thousands of children, poisoned by contaminated water, die from dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea. Others succumb to respiratory infections that become fatal, full-body infections. Five thousand children, under age five, perish each month. 960,000 children who are severely malnourished will bear lifelong consequences of stunted growth, brain deficiencies, disablement. At the hands of UN/US policy makers, childhood in Iraq has, for thousands, become a living hell.

Repeatedly, the US media describe Iraq's plight as "hardship." Video footage and still photographs show professors selling their valuable books. Teenage students hawking jewelry in the market are interviewed about why they aren't in school. These are sad stories, but they distract us from the major crisis in Iraq today, the story still shrouded in secrecy. This is the story of extreme cruelty, a story of medicines being withheld from dying children. It is a story of child abuse, of child sacrifice, and it merits day-to-day coverage.

I felt ashamed of my own health and well-being, ashamed to be so comfortably adjusted to the privileged life of a culture that, however unwittingly, practices child sacrifice. Many of us westerners can live well, continue "having it all," if we only agree to avert our gaze, to look the other way, to politely not notice that in order to maintain our over consumptive lifestyles, our political leaders tolerate child sacrifice. "

A week later, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, at the conclusion of his remarks introducing a peaceful resolution to the weapon inspection crisis, urged young people around the world to recognize that we are all part of one another, to see the world not from the narrow perspective of their own locale but rather from a clear awareness of our fundamental interdependence. What a contrast between his vision of a new generation that wants to share this planet's resources and serve one another's best interests, globally, and the vision that Ms. Albright offers: "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future."

The deeds of one leader, or even of an entire government, cannot be used to justify an unprecedented violation of human rights.

Kathy Kelly
Voices in the Wildernss
A Campaign to End the US/UN Economic Sanctions Against the People of Iraq
1460 West Carmen Ave. Chicago, IL 60640
ph:773-784-8065
f: 773-784-8837
email: kkelly@igc.apc.org