Sanctions Against Iraq - Goals

Goals

The UN resolutions had the express goals of eliminating weapons of mass destruction and extended-range ballistic missiles, prohibiting any support for terrorism, and forcing Iraq to pay war reparations and all foreign debt.

Some have argued that a non-express goal of the sanctions was the removal of Saddam Hussein. For example, the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 stated that U.S. policy was to "replace that regime", an outcome that was not referenced in the U.N. resolutions but frequently mentioned by its supporters. In 1991, Paul Lewis wrote in the New York Times: "Ever since the trade embargo was imposed on Aug. 6, after the invasion of Kuwait, the United States has argued against any premature relaxation in the belief that by making life uncomfortable for the Iraqi people it will eventually encourage them to remove President Saddam Hussein from power." American war policy architect Douglas J. Feith argued that the sanctions diminished Iraq militarily while scholars George A. Lopez and David Cortright credit sanctions with compelling Iraq to accept inspections and monitoring; winning concessions from Baghdad on political issue such as the border dispute with Kuwait; preventing the rebuilding of Iraqi defenses after the Persian Gulf War; and blocking the import of vital materials and technologies for producing weapons of mass destruction". Hussein told his FBI interrogator that Iraq's armaments "had been eliminated by the UN sanctions."

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