A Different Kind of War The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq [Hardcover]

At a time when the international community is again threatening some countries with sanctions, this book comes as a warning. It should be mandatory reading for all those politicians and their foreign-policy advisors who continue to consider sanctions an effective form of policy. The author not only offers us a critical, lucid, and well-informed survey of political developments in Iraq, but also a heart-rending account of the suffering of the Iraqi people. It was they who bore the brunt of the 13-year's sanctions, while the members of Saddam's regime continued to live in luxury and accumulate huge fortunes.

H.-C. von Sponeck, the former UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, explores the UN's sanction policies against Iraq, their consequences, and the domestic conditions during this period. His extensive research is based on previously unpublished internal UN documents and discussions with UN decision makers (such as General Secretary Kofi Annan), Iraqi officials and politicians (including Saddam Hussein), and ordinary Iraqis. The authors findings question who really benefited from the program, what role the UN Security Council and its various member states played, and whether there were then and are today alternatives to the UN's Iraq policies.

von Sponecks analysis is wide-ranging, taking in not just the minutiae of economic sanctions but also what he sees as the flawed priorities of the UN Compensation Commission, the illegal maintenance of the northern and southern no-fly zones& At a time when Washington finds itself asserting a moral justification for continued intervention in Iraq,A Different Kind of Warremindsus&that the moral authority of the United States on the issue is seriously wanting.? ??Journal of Genocide Research

This is one of the most important books I can remember. ?????John Pilger

In this sober and impressive study, Hans Graf Sponeck reminds us olƒ+