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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (32865)	12/16/2003 11:46:14 AM
From: abuelita	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

Letter to the Editor Vancouver Sun Tuesday, December 16, 2003 As Saddam Hussein faces trial for his crimes against the Iraqi people, let's not forget that for 12 long years the United States and Britain maintained a policy of continuous war and draconian sanctions that killed more than 1.5 million Iraqis. Sanctions killed an estimated 5,000 children under the age of five each month, and left 25 percent of all Iraqi children irreparably damaged by chronic malnutrition. From the early 1990s, the U.S. and Britain deflected all blame for the terrible suffering in Iraq. It was Saddam's fault, they insisted, because he would not abide by their directives and dismantle his weapons of mass destruction so that the sanctions could be lifted. Now, it appears that for years the Iraqi government might have been telling the truth when it argued that it had no such weapons. For the next while, we're likely to be awash in details of Saddam's crimes and the ins and outs of international law as it applies to him. But let's not forget that justice means that laws must be applied equally to all. The U.S. and Britain imposed lethal punishment on the Iraqi people to get to Saddam. This is a crime against humanity. The Geneva Conventions strictly prohibit the collective punishment of civilian populations, even in war. If we want to look at the legal technicalities of war crimes and genocide, there is plenty of fodder for a case against the U.S. and Britain there, too. It is time we understood that double standards and hypocrisy are to blame for a great deal of global animosity towards the West. If a war crimes tribunal is created to prosecute crimes against the Iraqi people, there is a long list of western leaders who should be sharing the docket with Saddam. If we don't start to get it, there will be no peace on earth, and global terrorism will continue to spin out of control. Jillian Skeet