U.S. Foreign Policies

Speaker: An Iraqi student in the U.S. Crowd: Senators and University professors Situation: Madeline Albright just gave a speech about U.S. foreign policy/ relations

Imagine the fear of not knowing how your parents and little sister are doing back home. Imagine the shock of finding out your little sister is dying because there were no medicines available for her treatment. Imagine the sorrow you feel when you go back home and find your hometown in ruins and not anymore as beautiful, modern and safe as it once used to be. Well, I experienced all of that, and still wish that it's only a bad nightmare.

Mrs. Albright who was speaking about U.S. foreign policy failed to mention Iraq in her speech. About 5 months ago I saw her on TV in an interview with CNN. The reporter who had just returned from Iraq was describing that a million children were dying (died) due to sanctions imposed on the people of Iraq. He told her: "…..that is more children that have died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Do you think its worth it?"

Mrs. Albright looked into the camera and replied: " Yes, it is worth it."

Let me tell you more about Iraq, because it only gets worse from this point onwards. I believe there is a genocide happening in Iraq. It is a second holocaust. I have read of such bad things in history happening, like the Word Wars and people dropping atomic bombs without even thinking of the ramifications. 2.5 million people have died in Iraq so far, but still sanctions continue. For the last 10 years you wouldn't imagine the kinds of things that aren't being let into the country: heart machines, lung machines, needles, infrastructural parts to build the economy. Even for cancer patients sometimes only some of the medicine will be let in, but not all. It's very strategic what is let in and at what time, because what it does, is, it prolongs life, but doesn't save it. Iraq which before the sanctions had the best medical services in the Arab World, now has to use gasoline to clean they're hospital floors, because detergents aren't allowed into the county due to sanctions. This is how U.S. policy has brought Iraq into such a bad shape.

The problem is that even though USA has imposed sanctions and recently even found out that Iraq has no nuclear capabilities they continue to bomb them. The U.S. is bombing Iraq every other day with depleted uranium, and what this does, is it releases a gas that people breathe in. This makes them ill, and because there are hardly any medicines available people , young and old die. The only solution I would see is to take the sanctions away on Iraq and stop bombing them, because it is already in bad shape. The nation needs to be restructured drastically and offered aid from other nations in doing so. The people of Iraq shouldn't be paying for the mistakes of their leader.

Talking about their leader Saddam Hussein, I agree he is a brutal dictator. But we need to see who is responsible for how strong Saddam has gotten. When he was gassing the Kurds he was using chemical weapons manufactured in Rochester, New York. When he was fighting a long protracted war with Iran, where 1 million people died it was the CIA who was funding him. It was the U.S. policy that built this dictator. When they didn't need him they started to impose sanctions on Iraq and its inhabitants.

I think that the reply of Madeline Albright to the reporter as she said: " Yes it is worth it." Was extremely harsh, cold blooded and ruthless. It is even crueller when you see the figures for the number of deaths in Iraq.

Since the sanctions have been imposed Iraq's cancer rate has risen by 70%, mainly due to the depleted uranium. 5000 people die every month. Many children who weren't even born when the Gulf War occurred are slowly dying of malicious diseases, in the jam-packed hospitals.

My point is that, I don't see any rights for the U.S. to continue imposing sanctions and bombing Iraq, because they are the one's who led Iraq to this situation. We all should urge the U.S. to stop taking such horrific actions against a nation that is already in ruins. I am fortunate enough to be giving this speech in front of so many Government officials, that's why I will seize the opportunity to make a plea to you to do something against the U.S. wrong doings in Iraq. I hope this speech hase made you think a bit more of the unfortunate situation of the Iraqi people.