Rep. Gonzalez, Citing War ‘Greed,’ Urges Food, Medicine for Iraqis

Charging that the embargo against Iraq could contribute to massive starvation and disease, the chairman of the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee demanded Friday that President Bush take “immediate action” to deliver food and medicine to the war-ravaged nation.

In a letter to the President, Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.) said that the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War has demonstrated that the conflict had “nothing to do with democracy, with justice or with freeing the oppressed, and it had everything to do with greed--spelled o-i-l.”

Gonzalez cited a Harvard University study projecting that 170,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 will die in the coming year from the delayed effects of Operation Desert Storm. He said that the destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure and the U.N. ban on Iraqi oil sales has left Baghdad unable to meet the basic needs of its people.

“Mr. President, do not wait until you are embarrassed into taking humanitarian action, as you were in the tragic situation of the Kurds,” Gonzalez wrote. “How many Iraqi women, children and elderly people will have to die before this Administration takes basic humanitarian action on their behalf as well?”

The congressman called for “an immediate and massive international effort” to establish a fund to provide food and medical relief. “The most fundamental responsibility we have is to prevent more children from dying when we and our allies have the ability to help,” he said.