Oil for Food

While the United States has once again displayed its humanitarian largess by permitting Iraq to sell oil for food, back home in Baghdad, the Iraqi spin doctors will have very little difficulty in casting this as a major victory for Saddam Hussein. The bottom line is that whether the United States and the United Nations intended it or not, the oil deal will in effect strengthen Saddam Hussein’s hold on power. JINSA remains a firm believer in continuing the sanctions against Iraq.

While the United States has once again displayed its humanitarian largess by permitting Iraq to sell oil for food, back home in Baghdad, the Iraqi spin doctors will have very little difficulty in casting this as a major victory for Saddam Hussein. The bottom line is that whether the United States and the United Nations intended it or not, the oil deal will in effect strengthen Saddam Hussein’s hold on power. JINSA remains a firm believer in continuing the sanctions against Iraq.

However, there are other possible alternatives and approaches to the sanctions. At the JINSA board meeting on May 20th, while reiterating its firm support for the sanctions, the board recommended that the sanctions not extend to the Kurdish regions in the northern part of Iraq now protected by allied forces and Operation Provide Comfort.

The reason is simple. Freed from the oppression of Baghdad’s rule, the Kurds are now in a position to rebuild the devastation caused by the Iraqi Anfal campaign and the systematic destruction of over 2,000 Kurdish villages. To accomplish this task, the Kurds need resources which the West, specifically the United States, is not in a position to provide.

However, northern Iraq (a.k.a. Iraqi Kurdistan) happens to be one of the richest oil producing regions in the Middle East. If allowed to sell “their” oil on the world market, exported through Turkey, Kurds in northern Iraq and the northern Iraq region could soon recover from its devastation, and the ongoing cost of Operation Provide Comfort could be borne by the Kurds themselves.