Blair on Iraq & Britain's historical tradition of LOVE
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Tuesday December 17, 2002 17:51
by depp
"we are not killing innocent Iraqi women or children" "the Iraqis have as much money as they want"
"And incidentally, just to make the point on Iraq, we are not killing innocent Iraqi women or children. That is simply a piece of Iraqi propaganda that is simply false. The fact is the Iraqis have as much money as they want through the oil for food and medicine programme. They could put as much as they wanted into treating their people and healing their people, but they choose not to do so. And instead what happens is Saddam filters off large sums of that money for his personal use."
"Conflict is not inevitable, it depends on what Saddam Hussein does. If he abides the UN resolutions then that's an end of it."
"In any event I happen to believe that the war against terrorism is important. I think that the British people by and large know when an issue like this arises where their place is. And their place is actually not hiding behind other people but up front saying this is wrong, we are going to defeat it. As we've done many times in our history before."
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3Blair is a liar, over HALF A MILLION IRAQI CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF FIVE HAVE DIED as a direct result of the blockade directed against the Iraqi people. One brief example, a shepherd and his four children were killed when Blair's air force heroically mounted an attack on a herd of sheep, anti-aircraft defences were light. I would like all humane people to remember that the next time they see Tony on tv smiling at the camera. 500,OOO CHILDREN HAVE DIED!
All reviews of the oil-for-food program since it began in have shown that it is important yet totally inadequate. At best it has halted social deterioration. For example, malnutrition rates have stabilized in central/southern Iraq at the high level of 14.6 percent of children under five, or the program has helped to slow the rate of deterioration in such areas as water and sanitation. The program has not, however, managed to reverse trends with regard to illiteracy or mental illness among youth. In fact, in many areas conditions have severely worsened in the course of sanctions. Child mortality, for instance, as reported by UNICEF, increased from 56 children under five per thousand in 1991 to 131 in 1999. Malnutrition, re-emerging diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and cholera, inadequate supplies of medicines, even lack of transport and means of communication in emergencies account for this avoidable tragedy. Those who want to ascribe this either solely to internal or external reasons will have a hard time. Evidence is there, on the other hand, that after ten years this reality is overwhelmingly due to sanctions and an inhumane manner of implementing a program that in itself is inadequate to meet minimum human needs.
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