USA Today
12/14/99
Page 18A
USA TODAY's call for a ''review of Iraq policy'' is well founded, but it should include a review of the economic sanctions (''Lack of resolve undermines chances of swaying Saddam,'' Our View, Sanctions on Iraq debate, Thursday).
Perhaps the carrot-and-stick-approach that USA TODAY's editorial seems to reject would accomplish more than the current pointless, ''big stick'' policy of the United States.
Economic sanctions continue to miss their target -- Saddam Hussein -- and only further unravel the social fabric of a once-prosperous nation.
I am surprised anyone still can call for the continuation of the sanctions in light of the grim United Nations statistics on child mortality that result from them.
I would add that the economic blockade never will weaken Saddam. Instead, it will serve only to further entrench his regime.
And while the most vulnerable sectors of Iraq's population suffer, Saddam gains strength, bolstered by the growing dependence of Iraqi people on the regime.
Economic sanctions provide a powerful propaganda weapon for Saddam, who can blame the misery of the Iraqi people on the United States.
Yet neither his rhetorical blame of the U.S. nor the USA's rhetorical blame of Saddam will end the tragedy.
Only a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Iraq, through the vision and courage of new leadership, will change the current situation.
Erik Gustafson, Gulf War veteran
864th Engineering Battalion
Washington, D.C.
Insisting on Saddam Hussein's overthrow and funding opposition groups never have succeeded for us.
The overwhelming strategic interest is that we need Saddam in power to justify our enormous military presence -- for the first time -- in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to protect our cheaply bought oil. That is the reason President Bush did not go after him at the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
We loved Saddam when he was fighting the hostage-taking Iranians, and we love him now for delivering the Persian Gulf's oil into our hands, perhaps permanently.
But we weren't serious in supporting the anti-Saddam Kurdish or Shiite rebellions in Iraq, nor in, as George W. Bush says, ''taking him out.''
While our bellicose hypocrisy continues, scores of Iraqi children die every day from hunger and disease. The least we can do is delink military sanctions, if that's really our goal, from economic and humanitarian aid. Perhaps if we fed, clothed and medically treated the Iraqis, they would do our bidding and ''take out'' Saddam.
Sanctions don't work, and hypocrisy is always revealed in time. Let's do the right thing now.
Mohamed Khodr, M.D.
Winchester, Va.
Later, television footage supported Adams' allegation. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would not comment on security allegations.
What hypocrisy! It seems as though the British are acting in bad faith in Ireland.
Thomas A. Briscoe
Naples, Fla. © Copyright 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.