Failed sanctions and silent guilt

IF war goes ahead in Iraq, we in the West can only conclude that the economic sanctions imposed eleven years ago were utterly futile.

The moment Bush and Blair order the first attack, the policy of Iraqi containment will have failed and the deaths of half a million innocent women and children will have counted for nothing. It can be argued that sanctions played a direct or indirect role in these fatalities, but the figures themselves cannot be disputed. In accepting the inevitability of war, we acknowledge the failure of sanctions and, in so doing, stand accused of acquiescence and compliance in the silent genocide perpetrated against the Iraqi people.

Damien McBride,