{"id":387,"date":"2003-04-24T10:22:58","date_gmt":"2003-04-24T15:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=387"},"modified":"2003-04-24T10:22:58","modified_gmt":"2003-04-24T15:22:58","slug":"sanctioning_san","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/24\/sanctioning_san.html","title":{"rendered":"Sanctioning sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

So back when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the UN passed economic sanctions on Iraq. <\/p>\n

And when Gulf War I was over, the sanctions regime was continued, contingent on Iraq’s adherence to the cease-fire conditions — which included, of course, giving up WMDs and promising to work and play well with others.<\/p>\n

Saddam never did, of course, and his cat-and-mouse with UN inspectors eventually drove them out of the country. The sanctions continued.<\/p>\n

Of course, there were loud cries as to how these sanctions will killing zillions <\/a>of people, and how they ought <\/a>to be <\/a>lifted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sanctions regime metamorphosed into the Oil for Food program. The idea was that the UN would monitor Iraqi oil sales to see that the revenues were being used for Good, Virtuous Things, like food and medicine, and not for weapons and anthrax samples.<\/p>\n

So, where are we today?<\/p>\n

The Iraqi regime that was developing\/hiding WMDs has been overthrown. <\/p>\n

The country is under the military control of an UNSC member, which is, one should note, paying for getting Iraq’s oil producing capabilities back up to snuff. It’s also paying for massive aid to Iraq, and helping rebuild its infrastructure and its government.<\/p>\n

The US wants the sanctions and the Oil for Food program suspended, so that Iraqi oil can pay for some of all this — to the direct benefit of the Iraqi people.<\/p>\n

The threat is over. <\/p>\n

Not so fast. <\/i> The countries — France, Russia, and Syria <\/a>— that were most approving of lifting sanctions once upon a time, are suddenly loathe to do so, until the UN is able to certify that Iraq is free of WMDs — a task that was once estimated would take months, if not years, under the cloud-cuckoo ideal cooperation from the old regime.<\/p>\n

And the UN leadership seems inclined to support this.<\/p>\n

But … isn’t the threat over? Aren’t sanctions and Oil for Food a hardship on the Iraqi people?<\/p>\n

Well, yeah, but there are, after all, bigger things to worry about. We don’t want to legitimize the war, after all, by pretending that it happened and we have to respond to it. And, since we all know the US is after Iraqi oil, we can’t let that happen.<\/i><\/p>\n

And, after all<\/a>, the UN gets billions of dollars for “administration” of the Oil for Food program. Without any oversight <\/a>or supervision or auditing of who gets how much, or why, or for what. <\/p>\n

And while France <\/a>now grudgingly accepts removing sanctions (“We’re willing to sell them anything they want!”), it still wants the Oil for Food program to be maintained, under UN control (and with the same EU-style secrecy that it’s been operating under). That way, it can be sure that French oil companies get to keep their contracts, and that the UN (France) gets to have a say in Iraq’s rebuilding. Control the purse strings, control the country.<\/p>\n

Interesting times ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So back when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the UN passed economic sanctions on Iraq. And when Gulf War I was over, the sanctions regime was continued, contingent on Iraq’s adherence to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5670,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/27\/evaluation.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":0},"title":"Evaluation","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jan-04 12:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"[N.B. This post was never finished or published at the time it was written.] So. It looks increasnigly unlikely that there are, or have been since the late 90s, substantial...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3651,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/14\/its_all_about_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":1},"title":"It’s all about oil, of course","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Oct-02 8:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"While war drums beat on the Potomac, a number of folks suggest that the whole impetus for US military action against Iraq is to get at the oil there. Never...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":474,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/09\/friend_of_the_f.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":2},"title":"Friend of the friendless","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Apr-03 4:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Moore is back out there, rousing his rabble and flogging his product (and in public!). Some excerpts: It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in colonizing Iraq...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3573,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/24\/europe_and_sanc.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":3},"title":"Europe and sanctions","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Oct-02 1:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Europeans have recently changed their tune on sanctions against Iraq. Dropping the canard that millions of Iraqis have died from sanctions, the European foreign ministers now claim that such...","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/24\/europe_and_sanc.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":226,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/22\/now_they_tell_u.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":4},"title":"Now they tell us","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-May-03 11:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"Saddam Hussein was personally swiping billions from the UN Oil for Food program. Says who? Some neocon warmonger's rant? Some isolationist Dubya anti-UN screed? Nope -- so says the UN...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4104,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/05\/saying_it_all.html","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":5},"title":"Saying it all","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Feb-03 12:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The French reaction to Powell's presentation today says it all: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called Powell's evidence \"disturbing,\" but he, too, said it fell short of proving the...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}