The Real Criminal is Saddam Hussein by Pat Murray Amid rumors that Russia, France or China would block the passage of renewed sanctions against Iraq, the United Nations Security Council voted this week to renew the seven year old sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation. Secretary of State Madeline Albright and U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson were both pleased with the vote, as they have been strong proponents for sanctions against Iraq over the last few months. Many Americans, fundamentally opposed to the sanctions, did not share Albright and Richardson's relief. Calling the sanctions unjust and damaging, many American peace and social action groups have called for an end to the sanctions because they feel that America is strangling the Iraqi people with the economic embargo. These groups choose to blame the United States and the United Nations for the sickness and starvation running rampant throughout Iraq. They bandy about terms like "war crimes," terms which are better suited to Iraq's rogue dictator, Saddam Hussein. A master of propaganda, Hussein has succeeded in convincing the world community that his nation is slowly dying at the hands of aggressor nations like the United States and Great Britain while, in reality, there is evidence that he is responsible for many of the atrocities within his own nation. Hussein remains one of the world's most harsh dictators; his own paranoia and megalomania keep him in power. Sadly, at this time, sanctions are the only tool that the world community can use against him. According to Le Monde, the sanctions against Iraq have cost the nation 400,000 to 600,000 children since 1991, with approximately 4,500 children dying each month in Iraqi hospitals. Those frightening statistics have been reenforced with the images and words of the Iraqi people during the crisis: all too familiar pictures of suffering babies and helpless families have flooded American television screens. That Iraqi hospitals function without the needed supplies is common knowledge throughout the world, though the degree to which hospitals are in need is appalling. One doctor told reporters that "we don't have the disposable syringes to inject the children. We use glass syringes. We boil them, and we inject all the children with the same syringe." Stories like his are what the Western media is fed by the Baathist regime, and like the American people, western journalists swallow the story hook, line and sinker. There is no disputing that Iraqi hospitals are in dire need of supplies, and there is no questioning that the Iraqi people are malnourished and starving. The question is this: whose fault is it? Groups like Swarthmore's Iraq Action Group place the blame on the western powers imposing the embargo on Iraq. With letters to their Congressional representatives and symbolic fasting, these groups are fighting Saddam Hussein's propaganda war. They are noble and idealistic activists who are willing to accept what they see on the television, without questioning the veracity of the reporting. And question they should. Looking around downtown Baghdad, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that the nation has been crippled under the yoke of economic sanctions. In 1994, the Baathist regime completed the Saddam International Tower, a 300 foot tall, state of the art office facility for the regime. Today, work continues on the Palace of Flowers, graced by a cupola, reflected in two man-made lakes, and surrounded by entertainment villas, like the billiards villa and the swimming pool villa. While his people seek shelter wherever they can find it, Hussein spends millions of dollars and millions of man hours completing monuments to himself If you wander into the right hospital, there are still no signs of the embargo which has Americans tied in knots. The Saddam Cardiac Hospital rivals western facilities in terms of equipment, staff and facilities. Just last year, doctors in the Cardiac Hospital performed elective cardiac surgery on a member of Hussein's inner circle. While his nation's hospitals are under-prepared for routine medical situations, Hussein's advisors have elective surgeries in a state of the art facility. In the basement of the hospital is a modern morgue, where a frightened doctor told a stray reporter that the morgue is where "we keep the babies for purposes of the state." For purposes of the state? Research? No. Funerals, of the mass variety, like Hussein likes to put on for the western press. While his nation's children die, Hussein collects the corpses so he can marshall them as evidence against the Great Satan in the west. The basement of the public morgue is a fairly safe place in Baghdad, while other basements are far more treacherous for westerners and Iraqis alike. In the basement of Amn El Khas, Hussein's feared military intelligence building, Iraqi soldiers commit over 30 forms of torture, according to Amnesty International. Prisoners in Amn El Khas suffer enormously, with tortures ranging from having their eyes seared with ultra violet rays, to being roasted on a spit over an open fire, to being stretched on medieval-style racks. While his foreign supporters fight for Iraqi human rights, Hussein flagrantly violates the Geneva Convention. How has he maintained control over a sick and dying nation while living in such extravagance? Simply, Saddam Hussein is paranoid and methodical, which has prevented successful coups and foreign military intervention. Major General Wafik Sammarrai, formerly Hussein's head strategist, told a German reporter of Hussein's use of body doubles, and his unwillingness to sleep in the same bed for two consecutive nights. Obviously Hussein learned from botched attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, as he keeps himself wholly shielded from any sort of outside influences which could end his tenuous hold over Iraq. The situation in Iraq is one of the most ugly and inhumane in the world today. Children are dying, and people are starving, but people around the world need to look past the symptoms and see the problem. It is far too easy to blame Western nations for Iraq's sufferings, and wholly inaccurate. Saddam Hussein needs to once again come under the world's magnifying glass, and his crimes against his own people and against humanity need to come to the light of day. America is not strangling Iraq; rather, Iraq's own ruler is standing idly by as his own people suffer for want of any shred of humanity from their leader. At this crucial juncture, sanctions are the only option left. Hussein has not complied with the terms which could end the sanctions: he still battles the UN over weapons inspection teams, and he still produces and hides chemical and biological weapons throughout his nation. He is a frightening dictator, as he has already proven his willingness to use biological agents in warfare. Over the past several years, in his skirmishes with his Kurdish population, he has resorted to gas attacks frequently. Lifting the sanctions would provide Hussein with all of the tools he needs to complete his weapons program; right now he possesses 17 tons of Anthrax growth medium, and without sanctions he could easily obtain what he needs to produce Anthrax as a weapon. Just a teaspoon full of Anthrax could take out Isreal, Southern England, or any major city in the United States. Saddam Hussein has the world in a stalemate, though through use of propaganda, he is quickly earning allies in nations across the world. He has proven himself to be a ruthless dictator, yet so many Americans are willing to forget the crimes that he continues to commit to this day. Such a short memory might help a few Iraqi people in the short run, but it will have devastating effects on the world in the long run.

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