Targeting Iraq: Sanctions and Bombing in US Policy

Rating:
Summary: A damning indictment of Western policy
Review: Simons should be applauded for this comprehensive look at U.S. and U.K. policy towards Iraq during the nineties and right up to the new war in Iraq. When Democrats are the ones carrying out such a horrible policy, there is bound to be little criticism of it, since the Republicans would have been even harsher. This book is critical if one is to fully understand what is happening in Iraq today.

Simons makes his case that the sanctions regime established for Iraq had a devastating effect on the Iraqi population through a comprehensive understanding of relevant UN resolutions and international law. There's no way that a counter-argument can be made here without sounding like an in-humane schmuck. While it is true (and Simons states this up front) that Hussein was a horrific abuser of human rights, to say that this book is one sided misses the point. The goal of the book was to look at what the United States did in all of this.

The book is very critical of Western policy, but I believe it to be warranted. The only shortcoming of the book is that Simons includes a lot of very specific and detailed claims about certain people or places that were targeted in Iraq without citing sources. While this does not hurt the overall argument, these details should have either been cited or ommitted. Beyond that, this book has a monopoly on the relevant factual information on this topic.

Rating:
Summary: A damning indictment of Western policy
Review: Simons should be applauded for this comprehensive look at U.S. and U.K. policy towards Iraq during the nineties and right up to the new war in Iraq. When Democrats are the ones carrying out such a horrible policy, there is bound to be little criticism of it, since the Republicans would have been even harsher. This book is critical if one is to fully understand what is happening in Iraq today.

Simons makes his case that the sanctions regime established for Iraq had a devastating effect on the Iraqi population through a comprehensive understanding of relevant UN resolutions and international law. There's no way that a counter-argument can be made here without sounding like an in-humane schmuck. While it is true (and Simons states this up front) that Hussein was a horrific abuser of human rights, to say that this book is one sided misses the point. The goal of the book was to look at what the United States did in all of this.

The book is very critical of Western policy, but I believe it to be warranted. The only shortcoming of the book is that Simons includes a lot of very specific and detailed claims about certain people or places that were targeted in Iraq without citing sources. While this does not hurt the overall argument, these details should have either been cited or ommitted. Beyond that, this book has a monopoly on the relevant factual information on this topic.