NOT IN OUR NAME

["Sally Perrine" <sperrine@potlatch.com>]

 

I couldn’t agree more with the recent postings by Bob Hoffman and Sharon Sullivan re the Iraqi situation.  With this topic in mind I’d like to suggest that you read an article in the November 2002 issue of Harper’s magazine, Cool War by Joy Gordon, about the effects of U.S. and U.N. economic sanctions.  I found particularly startling the data on child mortality.  Since the program began, 500,000 children under the age of five have died – and by 1999 a full 13% of all Iraqi children were dead before their fifth birthday!  If our compassion is not big enough to include these kids and their families, it doesn’t amount to much!
 Quick quiz: Which 2 countries are most likely to have residents who are obese?  Answer:  The U.S and Britain.

Sally Perrine

(Incidentally,  many thanks for all the responses to the NOT IN OUR NAME newspaper submission.  We got over 500 signatures within a little over a week and very generous pledges to help pay for the ad.  It should be in next weekend’s Daily News.)