Sanctions Have Targeted Innocent Iraqi Civilians

“Slipping Through Sanctions” (Oct. 19) was commendable but seriously failed to discuss the extent of the horror the sanctions have imposed on the people of Iraq, if not on the wealthy or on Saddam Hussein. It has been fully documented by many sources, including UNICEF, that over 500,000 children have died since the sanctions were imposed by our country. Between the 1991 bombing and the sanctions, over 1 million Iraqis have died and continue to die by the thousands every month.

More than ever, of course, many people struggle with the question, “Why do so many people hate Americans?” We can never answer this question adequately if the journalists we trust to tell us what our country does to others refuse, for whatever the reason, to do so.

Bruce Terrence

Van Nuys

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It was ironic that the Oct. 19 front page featured both the Iraqi sanctions and anxiety over the shortage of anthrax vaccines (“U.S. Plagued by Chronic Shortage of Key Vaccines”). The anthrax scare is possibly related to the Sept. 11 tragedy, which was rightly classified as a terrorist attack.

After the attack, there was one burning question in everyone’s mind: “Why?” To which a host of pundits spewed a whole lot of reasons from the ridiculous “They hate us because we love freedom” to the plausible “They hate our foreign policy.” But, whatever the reason, we were all unified in that it was an act of terror, wherein innocent people were held accountable for wrongs they did not commit.

So how is it not also wrong that our government has targeted the civilian population of Iraq for the wrongs that its dictator Saddam Hussein committed? After all, they are innocent too, and especially so, since they can’t claim to live in a democracy with the power to influence their government. How can it be right that we wring our hands and worry about the shortage of vaccines for a possible terrorist threat when the Iraqi people are forced to live with hunger, disease and death every day?

Sridhar Subramanian

Santa Barbara