Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state, spoke to a full house on Nov. 9 at the Flint Center.
Demonstrators gathered outside to let people know Albright’s role in the sanctions on Iraq, santions that will define her career in years to come.
On May 12, 1996 Albright appeared on “60 Minutes,” six months before she became secretary of state. Host Lesley Stahl, referring to a 1995 figure, said, “We have heard that a half a million children have died … that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?” Albright said “I think this is a very hard choice, but … we think the price is worth it.”
When asked about the sanctions at the Flint Center event, she was not so blunt and honest. She replied, “I am always glad when someone asks that question because people don’t have the facts straight. The sanctions don’t stop food and medicine.” She went on to say that it was Saddam Hussein that keeps the Iraqi people from being fed.
The U.S. has been the main enforcer, supporter and architect of the deadly sanctions, largely with Albright as U.N. ambassador, and later as secretary of state. Though food and medicine aren’t completely blocked, bureaucracy and red tape have made it difficult to import and distribute.
The food and medicine imported into the country in recent years is largely through the “oil for food” program that began four years ago. The Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Web site states the program “is a complicated bureaucratic endeavor tasked with contracting, importing and distributing scarce foods and medicines to … a country crippled by infrastructure, devastation and international isolation.”
To produce a scapegoat, politicians have said Saddam Hussein hoards the supplies. This was not only false, but also failed to sway public opinion. To improve their images, the U.S. and U.K. have proposed new “smart sanctions” this year.
Neither the “smart sanctions” nor the “oil for food” programs address the fundamental problems of a country with an infrastructure that has been laid in ruins since the Gulf War. Only by allowing Iraq access to the money made from its own oil and trade can the country begin to rebuild itself. The most basic things such as health care, employment, educational facilities, agriculture, electricity, sewage treatment and clean water will continue to be unavailable to most people. Disease and malnutrition will likely continue to kill 5,000 children every month.
Albright said the sanctions will remain as long as Hussein is in control. Possibly, the death toll may reach levels unprecedented in history.
In a discussion with the U.N. security council, Albright stated, “We recognize this area as vital to U.S. national interests.”
Clearly, the vital interest in the Middle East is oil. Albright obviously thinks it is worth it to kill over a million people to guarantee access to it.
“If we have to use force, it is because we are … the indispensable nation,” Albright said on the “Today Show” in 1998. Patriotism is indeed the last refuge of a scoundrel.