Can the U.S. Kill Iraqi Children Legally?
January 5, 2007 By Bert Sacks Bert Sacks has visited Iraq 9 times since 1996. Below are two recent op-eds by Bert. “Imagine if a U.S. cruise missile were to land on a kindergarten and kill 165 children. Imagine now that it was launched knowing it would hit that kindergarten, and further, that one of these missiles was launched at a different kindergarten every day for a month. That’s 5,000 children. “To kill that many children as a matter of state policy would be unspeakable. The American commander in chief would be condemned as a barbarian. And yet, that is what the economic embargo of Iraq has done.” This is from a Seattle Times editorial six years ago. For ten years I have wanted to ask one very basic question: Not were the sanctions barbaric. But were the sanctions legal? Could the U.S cause the deaths of thousands of Iraqi children every month for years and do so legally? I will finally get a chance to ask this of the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition I’ll file this month. I need t