Rick McDowell

The United Nations began imposing economic sanctions on Iraq after its unsuccessful 1990 invasion of Kuwait. These sanctions have continued throughout the 1990s as part of a plan to thwart the aggressive ambitions of Iraq’s government. In the following viewpoint, Rick McDowell contends that these sanctions should be lifted because they have caused years of suffering for the Iraqi civilian population. Shortages of food, clean water, and medicine have led to massive starvation and outbreaks of disease, McDowell reports. Upholding human rights requires ending such cruel and destructive sanctions, he concludes. McDowell is a member of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to stop the UN sanctions against Iraq.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Association, how many Iraqis have died as...