Name: __________________________________________________________
CHOICES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION PROGRAM WATSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, BROWN UNIVERSITY
WWW.CHOICES.EDU 
Containment to Regime Change – Part 3
In 1991 at the end of the Persian Gulf War, the
United States decided not to invade Iraq and
overthrow Saddam Hussein. The US policy
became to stop Hussein from rebuilding a
strong military, this policy was referred to as
“containment.” There were three ways the
USA attempted to stop Hussein from
rebuilding his strength; military force,
economic sanctions, and
weapons inspections.
Weapons Inspections
Between 1991 and 1998 (when Iraq
stopped allowing them), inspections from the
United Nations would come into the country
and search Iraqi facilities for weapons of mass
destruction. During this time, they destroyed
large stockpiles of chemical and biological
weapons.
Military Force
The USA and Great
Britain (and France for a
time) created “no-fly” zones
in Northern and Southern
Iraq, where the Kurds (North)
and Shi’a (South) lived. The
stated reason for this policy
was to protect the people
from attacks by their own
government.
The USA, Great
Britain (and France for a
time) used aircraft to patrol
the areas and frequently
bombed Iraqi targets to enforce the no-fly
zones. The USA and Great Britain also led a
large bombing campaign in Iraq in 1998 aimed
at Iraq’s weapons facilities.
Economic Sanctions
The USA convinced the United Nations
to put economic sanctions on Iraq that would
limit the sale of Iraqi oil around the world.
These sanctions remained until May 2003.
Sanctions
The United Nations put sanctions on
Iraq in 1990 to pressure Iraq to leave Kuwait.
These sanctions stayed on even after the war
in order to stop Saddam Hussein from gaining
more power. The United Nations knew that
Iraq had WMDs and put the sanctions on Iraq
to pressure them into continuing to allow
weapons inspectors to come into the country
and destroy these weapons.
—Rolf Ekeus, UNSCOM director (1991- 1997),
February 24, 2000 interview
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These sanctions cut Iraq off from the
world economy. They banned all imports (with
exceptions from some medicine and food) and
also banned the sale of oil, which was a really
important part of the Iraqi economy. The
sanctions also prevented all international
flights to and from Iraq.
--------------------------------------------------------------
“
There was deep concern about the
Iraqi weapons capability....
Sanctions were the way to convince
Iraq to cooperate with inspectors.
Why should Iraq have cooperated with
inspectors if there was no carrot
and no stick?... Sanctions were the
backing for the inspections, and they
were what sustained my operation
almost for the whole time.”
How did sanctions affect Iraq?
These economic sanctions aimed at
stopping the government had huge negative
effects on the Iraqi citizens. At this time, much
of the infrastructure of Iraq had been
destroyed by the Persian Gulf War. Without
key imports, Iraq did not have the materials it
needed to rebuild. Homes, schools,
agriculture, the ability to produce and
distribute clean water, hospitals and many
other things needed for day to day life had
been destroyed, and were not able to be
properly fixed without imports that Iraq could
not get because of the sanctions.
Furthermore, prior to the Persian Gulf War,
Iraq imported 2/3rds of its food, and this food
shortage cause a number of health problems
for Iraqi people.
As a result of all these things, the Iraqi
economy collapsed, unemployment went way
up, and diseases spread. The structures that
Iraq had to deal with these problems had
disappeared and life for every day Iraqis
became very difficult. Crime, smuggling, black
market exchanges, and corruption all became
common. As many as two million Iraqis would
leave the country during this time.
Saddam Hussein, the person who
these sanctions were largely aimed at, grew
wealthier. The
crime and black
market trading
benefited him,
and his personal
wealth grew. He
also used the
money he gained
to gain more
power. Those
that were loyal
during this time
had greater
access to food,
wealth and other
necessities that
the rest of the
country was not
getting.
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“
How ironic...that the same
policy that is supposed to
disarm Iraq of its weapons of
mass destruction has itself
become a weapon of mass
destruction.”
—Hasmy Agam, Malaysian ambassador to
the UN, March 2000
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Eventually, the countries around Iraq,
Turkey, Syria, Iran and Jordan for example,
started ignoring the sanctions and traded with
Iraq anyway. The USA and Great Britain
insisted that the United Nations continue
them, though, and so they remained.
Who was responsible for the humanitarian
catastrophe in Iraq during the 1990s?
At this time, there was a great debate
about who was responsible for the problems in
Iraq, Saddam Hussein or the USA and Great
Britain. Those that supported the economic
sanctions
claimed that
Hussein was
responsible.
He had the
money to
support his
people, but
chose to
spend it on
himself and
his military.
They argued
that if
Saddam
Hussein
would just
agree to all
the things
the United Nations was asking of him, then the
sanctions would be lifted, therefore the
problems were things he alone could solve.
Critics of the United States said that
there was never a reason to believe that
Saddam Hussein would use his wealth to help
his people. They believed that harming the
civilian population was not a fair way to put
pressure on a dictator, and in fact the USA
should have expected Saddam Hussein to react
this way. Most Iraqis resented the United
States and the UN and considered them at
fault for the problems in Iraq. Saddam Hussein
promoted this view in order to shift blame
away from himself. Throughout the 1990s, the
U.S. officials and United Nations weapons
inspectors accused Iraq of interfering with and
not complying with the weapons inspections
however the weapons inspectors continued to
be allowed in the country. In 1998 this
relationship got worse.
In 1998, Iraq came to the UN to make
an agreement. If they completed complied
with everything the UN weapons inspectors
were asking for, would the UN stop the
sanctions. On October 30th 1998, the USA
turned down a UN proposal to stop the
sanctions if Iraq complied completely with the
weapons requirements. At this time, believing
that there was no way to please the USA and
end the sanctions, Iraq stopped doing anything
that the weapons inspectors were requiring.
In response, the USA and Great Britain
launched a series of air strikes called Operation
Desert Fox. The strikes were aimed at
weapons facilities throughout Iraq. The
president of the USA at this time was Bill
Clinton, he explained that the strikes were
happening as a result of Iraq not complying
with the weapons inspectors and he was
worried about what would happen if Saddam
Hussein ended up with WMDs.
“Saddam Hussein must not be
allowed to threaten his neighbords or
the world with nuclear arms, poison
gas, or biological weapons… Left
unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use
these terrible weapons again… The
conclusions (of the recent inspections)
are stark, sobering and profoundly
disturbing…. The international
community gave Saddam one last
chance to resume cooperation with
the weapons inspectors. Saddam has
failed to seize the
chance. And so we
had to act and act
now.”
President Clinton
December 16th 1998
According
to US officials, the
air strikes were a
success and hurt
Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs, and his
control over the country. At this time, UN
weapons inspectors were forced out of the
country, and US information about what Iraq
was doing became very limited.
The actions were received with a lot of
criticism both within the USA and from abroad.
Many called it an inappropriate and
unnecessary use of force that ultimately would
hurt the world’s attempt to disarm Saddam
Hussein, and that put Iraqi civilians
at risk. Weapons Inspectors would
not be allowed into the USA again.