From the iac-list mailing list (check out www.iraqaction.org)

/PeA

Dear fellow peace activists,

The upcoming 10th anniversary of the sanctions on Iraq and the 55th
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima (both on August 6) provides us
with an extremely important opportunity to publish 'letters to the editor'
and 'op-ed' pieces in our local papers.

In order to facilitate such letter writing - and encourage each of you to
submit a letter or an Op-Ed piece, I've enclosed a sample piece below.
Please modify the piece to suit your own style, or write your own original
piece.

Please do NOT submit the piece in its current format.

There are additional quotes and facts included at the end of the piece
that you could utilize. If you would like any additional information,
please let me know (e-mail: [log in to unmask]) or access any of the websites
on Iraq (saveageneration.org, for example)

Letters to the Editor should be no more than 250 words. Op-Ed pieces
typically should be 400-450 words.  Be sure to include your full name,
mailing address, and phone-number.

Please send me a copy of any letter or op-ed piece that you submit, and
please let me know if it does get published.

Thank you, in advance, for your contribution in this critical time.

In Solidarity,
-Rania Masri
[log in to unmask]

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Sample piece: End siege on Iraqi people / Japan-Iraq parallels

Please do NOT submit the piece in its current format.


This week (or 'Today') marks the tenth anniversary of the continuing
US-led blockade on the Iraqi people, as well as the 55th anniversary of
the atomic bombings on Japan.  The similarities between the final attacks
on Japan and the continuing US war against Iraq (both sanctions and
bombings) are chilling.

The amount of explosives dropped on Iraq in the first day alone (Jan. 17,
1991) of air and naval attacks was equivalent to the explosive power of
the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.  This military onslaught on a
defenseless people included the first-time use of more than 300 tons of
depleted uranium, a radioactive waste product from the uranium enrichment
process. "This [DU] is the Agent Orange of the 1990s -
absolutely," according to Doug Rokke, a former US Army health physicist
who was part of the DU assessment team in the Gulf War.

All in all, more than 140,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to seven
nuclear bombs, were used against the Iraqi society in destroying their
civilian infrastructure and environment (in violation of the Geneva
Convention).

Unfortunately, the war against the Iraqi people did not end with the
cessation of military attacks in 1991.  The war continues to this very
day, with the bombing of Iraq (US bombs Iraq an average of once every 3
days) and with a suffocating blockade. According to UN reports, since the
imposition of sanctions Iraq "has experienced a shift from relative
affluence to massive poverty" and "Infant mortality rates in Iraq today
are among the highest in the world."

The August 1999 UNICEF report revealed that more than 500,000 toddlers and
infants have died as a direct result of these 'sanctions.'  Approximately
250 people die every day in Iraq due to the effect of the
sanctions.  Furthermore, "the Oil-for-Food plan has not resulted in
adequate protection of Iraq's children from malnutrition/disease. Those
children spared from death continue to remain deprived of essential rights
addressed in the Convention of Rights of the Child." (source: UNICEF,
1998)

Why? Former weapons inspector Scott Ritter wrote in the Boston Globe
(3/9/00) that, "...from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq has in fact been
disarmed... The chemical, biological, nuclear and long-range ballistic
missile programs that were a real threat in 1991 had, by 1998, been
destroyed or rendered harmless."

How can we justify this 'sanctions' policy? I repeat the question that
Hans von Sponeck, the second UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, asked in
February before resigning, "How long the civilian population, which is
totally innocent on all this, should be exposed to such punishment for
something that they have never done?"

[If this letter or Op-Ed piece will be submitted before August 5th, you
could also add this paragraph] On the weekend of August 5th-7th, thousands
of activists from all over the United States will gather in Washington, DC
to demand the abolition of comprehensive sanctions, a weapon of mass
destruction waged upon the Iraqi people. With a growing number of
countries, former UN officials, Members of Congress, religious bodies, and
organizations coming out against these sanctions, the time has come for us
to gather and take a principled against the Clinton administration's
genocidal policy toward Iraq.

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Additional quotes that could be used:

"After nine years of trade sanctions...the situation of the civilian
population is increasingly desparate. Deteriorating living conditions,
inflation, and low salaries make people's everyday lives a continuing
struggle." -International Committee of the Red Cross report to the
Security Council, Feb. 2, 2000

"We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple
and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral." Denis Halliday, after
resigning as first UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian
Coordinator in Iraq, The Independent, 15 October 1998.

Iraq "has experienced a shift from relative affluence to massive
poverty. In marked contrast to the prevailing situation prior to the
events of 1990-91, the infant mortality rates in Iraq today are among the
highest in the world, low infant birth weight affects at least 23% of all
births, chronic malnutrition affects every fourth child under five years
of age, only 41% of the population have regular access to clean water, 83%
of all schools need substantial repairs. The ICRC states that the Iraqi
health-care system is today in a decrepit state. UNDP calculates that it
would take 7 billion US dollars to rehabilitate the power sector
country-wide to its 1990 capacity." - UN Report on the Current
Humanitarian Situation in Iraq, submitted to the Security Council, March
1999

"The humanitarian situation in Iraq will continue to be a dire one in the
absence of a sustained revival of the Iraqi economy, which in turn cannot
be achieved solely through remedial humanitarian efforts." - UN Report on
the Current Humanitarian Situation in Iraq, submitted to the Security
Council, March 1999

"The increase in mortality reported in public hospitals for children under
five years of age (an excess of some 40,000 deaths yearly compared with
1989) is mainly due to diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition. In those over
five years of age, the increase (an excess of some 50,000 deaths yearly
compared with 1989) is associated with heart disease, hypertension,
diabetes, cancer, liver or kidney diseases." Approximately 250 people die
every day in Iraq due to the effect of the sanctions. - UNICEF, April
1998.

The sanctions, which deny access to basic healthcare, clean water and
electricity, are a systematic violation of the Geneva Convention, which
prohibits the "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare."

In March 2000, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Hans Von Sponeck stated that
the Oil-for-Food program currently totals only $252 per person per year -
or less than 70 cents per person per day. This explains the persistent and
alarming 20% chronic malnutrition rate among children under five.

Economic sanctions on Iraq cost U.S. farmers by closing a potential market
of 23 million people, or $1,000,000,000 in agricultural products,
according to the USDA. Prior to sanctions, US farmers annually exported
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of rice, wheat, and corn to Iraq.

In August 1999, the New York Times reported that air-strikes between
Jan.-Aug. 1999 alone cost U.S. tax payers over $1 billion. The U.S. is
still bombing Iraq, on average, once every two days. The U.S-led war on
Iraq takes federal dollars away from health care, education, housing and
other needs.
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