US sanctions on 1990s Iraq killed over a million Iraqis

Evidence

The US/UN sanctions on Iraq in the 1990s resulted in the deaths of over a million Iraqis. The 1990 war on Iraq had already devastated the country, destroying its modern infrastructure and denying Iraqis the right to security, access to water, health, shelter, and, more generally, the requirements for a decent life. Denis Halliday, an assistant secretarygeneral who was the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Baghdad, resigned after a thirty-four-year career with the UN in protest of the sanctions regime. He stated: “I don’t want to administer a programme that satisfies the definition of genocide.” Another UN humanitarian coordinator, Hans von Sponeck, also resigned in protest and penned a book that laid out the devastation caused by the US/UN sanctions. Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration, was asked by journalist Lesley Stahl on the show 60 Minutes whether the price of sanctions in the form of half a million dead Iraqi children was worth it, and without hesitation Albright replied, “we think the price is worth it.” Iraqis were marked by a vulnerability to premature death, through a deeply racist logic. The draconian sanction regime was acceptable to the political elite because it advanced US imperial aims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 197

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidentiary anchor for the vault’s existing claims that US post-9/11 empire operates on a racist logic marking Middle Eastern lives as expendable (Aziz/Razack/Rana cluster). The two UN coordinator resignations and Albright’s ‘price is worth it’ are citable correctives. — connects to: Iraq sanctions killed over a million ordinary Iraqis, not the regime — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 410; U.S. sanctions on Iraq killed up to 1.5 million people, mostly children — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 897; US-led sanctions caused at least 500,000 preventable Iraqi child deaths (+6 more)
• SHARE: Hans von Sponeck’s resignation-with-a-book detail and Halliday’s ‘definition of genocide’ quote are exactly the kind of documentation useful to someone covering sanctions history as genocide.

Broader Connections

• U.S. sanctions on Iraq killed up to 1.5 million people, mostly children #corroborates (0.95) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 897
• Iraq sanctions killed over a million ordinary Iraqis, not the regime #corroborates (0.92) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 410
• Iraq sanctions death toll estimates range from 250,000 to over 1.5 million. #qualifies (0.92) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1590
• US-led sanctions caused at least 500,000 preventable Iraqi child deaths #corroborates (0.90)
• UN sanctions killed at least half a million Iraqi children #corroborates (0.90) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 584
• Western sanctions killed thousands of Iraqi children who remain uncounted. #corroborates (0.88) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 396
• Sanctions killed more Iraqis than the war did, through slow weakening #corroborates (0.85) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 690
• Sanctions broke down Iraqi public services, leaving garbage everywhere #expands (0.75) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 582
• US humanitarian interventions in the 1990s served geostrategic interests and killed civilians #expands (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 464