I have never been more elated than I was to read the Sept. 1 editorial “Iraq’s people have suffered enough.” More than 600,000 children between infancy and age 5 have died of disease from impure water and grave malnutrition. Food and medicine have been unbeliev-ably scarce in a country that once had no poverty and every child had total health care and education through the university level of education.
Our center totally opposed the Gulf War, and subsequent information showed that the Senate received erroneous, emotionally charged information to vote in favor of the war. Two months after the war ended, I went with a women’s delegation to bring medicine to hospitals that served children and the less fortunate. The Tribune did a story about it on our return (Chicagoland, June 14, 1991), describing the war’s destruction and the impact, especially on children.
Since then we have been tireless advocates of lifting the embargo. I am a Dominican Sister, and there are 167 Iraqi Dominican Sisters who have a hospital in Baghdad and schools in other parts of the country. Each year we have raised thousands of dollars from the 34 Dominican Congregations of Sisters in the United States. We have sent the money with delegations each time, deliberately defying the U.S. government’s support of the embargo.
One of our staff members, Bob Bossie, is in Iraq with a delegation now. We thank you for increasing the visibility of this tragically unjust weapon of war–economic sanctions.
