A Challenge to the Supreme Court: Can the U.S. Kill Iraqi Children Legally?

International sanctions use civilian death and suffering to force a change in policy in governments. Those affected mostly by the sanctions are the most vulnerable, among whom are the children. Are sanctions equivalent to crimes against humanity?

Marilyn
by Bert Sachs
Counterpunch
January 4, 2007

"Imagine if a U.S. cruise missile were to land on a kindergarten and kill 165 children. Imagine now that it was launched knowing it would hit that kindergarten, and further, that one of these missiles was launched at a different kindergarten every day for a month. That's 5,000 children.

"To kill that many children as a matter of state policy would be unspeakable. The American commander in chief would be condemned as a barbarian. And yet, that is what the economic embargo of Iraq has done."

This is from a Seattle Times editorial six years ago. For ten years I have wanted to ask one very basic question: Not were the sanctions barbaric. But were the sanctions legal? Could the U.S cause the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children every month for years and do so legally?

I will finally get a chance to ask this of the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition I'll file this month.

I need to show what deaths occurred and why: UNICEF reported "there would have been half a million fewer deaths of children under-five [in Iraq] during the eight year period 1991 to 1998." The New England Journal of Medicine explained: "The [Gulf War] destruction of the country's power plants had brought its entire system of water purification and distribution to a halt, leading to epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and gastroenteritis, particularly among children." (read more.....) Killing Children

http://www.counterpunch.org/sacks01042007.html

Bert Sacks, who lives in Seattle, has been fined $10,000 by the U.S. government after going to Iraq to distribute medicine; Sacks has refused to pay any fines. More of his writings are at: http://bertoniraq.blogspot.com.