Description
Having written extensively on the Middle East and been involved with British aid agencies in the region, Graham-Brown details a number of aspects of the sanctions and military attacks that western governments have imposed on Iraq throughout the 1990s. She examines events in the 1970s and 1980s, the intervention, western policies and politics behind them, the embargo, and British and US air attacks up to early 1999. She says some of the underlying issues explain some of the seemingly unpredictable surface events. US distribution is by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Throughout the 1990s, Iraq has been the target not only of military attack but of the most draconian and protracted economic embargo ever imposed by the international community. In the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War, the embargo was accompanied by an effort to provide aid to the Iraqi people and to protect them against human rights abuses: an initiative that seemed to break new ground in providing protection for civilians in a situation of conflict. Yet the outcome of the international community's efforts has fallen short of the promise. Why has there been such a large gap between the rhetoric and reality? How exactly have the combinatin of economic sanctions, international humanitarian aid and limited protection of civilians affected Iraq? What lessons can be drawn from the experience? This is the most carefully documented, comprehensive account of the consequences of intervention in Iraq during the 1990s. It examines not only the record of intervention but also the complicated political context which has shaped international policy and the Iraqi response to it, and which has made events seem so unpredictable.
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