Letters.

Wither Iraqi Sanctions?

I was impressed with Matt Welch's "The Politics of Dead Children" (March). It convincingly demonstrated the real impact of sanctions and deserves to set the tone for all coverage going forward. However, it also left me with some unanswered questions. For instance, I am not persuaded that we should lift sanctions on Iraq.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad we are "engaging" China. I think we should lift the sanctions on Fidel Castro too, and let markets render him irrelevant. But is it fair to argue, as Welch seems to, that sanctions never work?

Those who advocated sanctions on South Africa were apparently vindicated when the apartheid regime was overturned. If I had been involved in the debate, I probably would have argued then that we should "engage" South Africa (as reason did), but I'm a results-oriented guy. If I'm honest, I have to acknowledge that sanctions seemed to work in that case.

But there's another point to consider. What impact--if any--do sanctions have on Saddam Hussein's ability to build weapons of mass destruction and threaten America? If sanctions kill Iraqi babies but save American ones, I'll bet most Americans would accept the trade. It's a cruel but indisputable truth. Ask just about any American. They'd say: Better their dead babies than ours.

Of course, one could argue that there is no connection between sanctions and military affairs. In fact, you could argue that sanctions make rogue nations more hostile and more dangerous. But observe what happened when the Soviets realized that their "self-imposed economic sanctions"--which is one way of looking at the autarkic economic system they had created--were undermining their ability to keep up with America's technological sophistication. They allowed the Berlin Wall to fall.

Yes, the embargo has certainly been a propaganda bonanza for Saddam and America's enemies. But has it truly been "ineffective"? I am not convinced.

Britton Manasco

Austin, TX

Matt Welch writes, "There have been no weapons inspectors in Iraq since 1998. As a result it is exceptionally difficult to know with precision what nuclear or biological weapons Saddam has on hand or in development."

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which polices the Non-Proliferation Treaty, has just returned from its annual inspection of Iraq. It said there has been no change in the status of the fissile material Iraq had acquired for use in its nuclear power plant. There has been no evidence Iraq has...