Saddam would not have been as bad as he was, if it hadn't been for all the help he got from America and others.
Still waiting for some proof of this???
Why should the Americans get credit for doing something dictated by "International obligation"?
Well geeze, you find it all to easy to criticize, why not give somebody some kudos when it is deserved. When you were raising your kids, it was their obligation to go to school and apply themselves, but you still gave them kudos when they did what they were obliged to do, did you not?
That is simply not true. Sure he built palaces, but the problem was the things he couldn't buy because of the sanctions.
Myth: The OFFP did not achieve its humanitarian goals.
Fact: In fact, the OFFP enabled the importation of enough food to feed all 27 million Iraqis. During its existence, the average daily caloric intake of the people of Iraq increased 83 percent, from 1,200 kilocalories to 2,200 kilocalories per person per day. In addition, malnutrition rates in 2002 in the central and southern part of the country were half those in 1996 among children under the age of five; in the three northern governorates, chronic malnutrition decreased 56 percent.
According to an article in the November 21, 2004 edition of
The Washington Post:
"International aid efforts and the U.N. oil-for-food program helped reduce the ruinous impact of sanctions, and the rate of acute malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis gradually dropped from a peak of 11 percent in 1996 to 4 percent in 2002."
This same article documented that malnutrition rates in Iraq have increased substantially since the end of the Oil-for-Food Program, from 4% to 7.7%.
Between 1997 and 2002, the capacity to undertake major surgeries increased by 40% and laboratory investigations increased by 25% in the center and south of Iraq. Communicable diseases, including cholera, malaria, measles, mumps, meningitis and tuberculosis were reduced in the center/south of Iraq during this period. As of May 29, 2003, there had been no cases of polio in Iraq for more than three years. In the three northern governorates, cholera was eradicated and the incidence of malaria reduced to the 1991 level. Vaccinations reduced measles morbidity considerably.
Preliminary findings indicate that between 1996 and 2002 there was a reduction in the number of underweight children from 23% to 10%; chronic malnutrition decreased from 32% to 24%; and acute malnutrition dropped from 11% to 5.4%. There were also significant improvements made to transportation, water and sanitation treatment facilities, agriculture, telecommunications and education among other infrastructure benefits.
{quote=#juan;771704]
Funny you should talk about the corruption of the UN, when it was the U.S. navy that ran the Food for Oil program.
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Myth: Oil smuggling was just one of many problems under the OFFP that the UN failed to prevent.
Fact: The UN had neither the authority nor the resources to prevent smuggling. The UN Security Council oversaw the OFFP, and the UN Secretariat's Office of the Iraq Program (OIP) implemented the Council's work on the ground in Iraq. Specifically, it was the role of the Security Council's 661 Committee to monitor all contracts awarded under the OFFP (all members of the UN Security Council, including the U.S., were members of the 661 Committee).
The task of policing oil smuggling fell to the Multinational Interception Force (MIF) - which was led by and predominantly made up of the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy.
The MIF was created following the imposition of sanctions in 1990 and was responsible for preventing smuggling from and into Iraq via the Gulf region. Copies of
waivers issued by both the current Bush Administration and the Clinton Administration show that the U.S. was aware that Iraq was trading oil with its neighbors, in violation of the UN sanctions, as far back as 1991.
Many observers believe successive U.S. administrations allowed the illegal oil trades to continue because stopping them could endanger the support of Iraq's neighbors for UN sanctions.
