(Sorry, no sources below \u2014 I have a day job, but I wanted to type this up while I was thinking of it. \u00a0I\u2019ll cut my lunch break short later.)<\/p>\n
No, I don\u2019t mean the current situation in Iraq. \u00a0I\u2019m thinking about the situation prior to the invasion in 2003. <\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s approach to containing Saddam and his store of chemical weapons (because, remember, everyone believed he had them, not just Bush, and it was later determined that Saddam actively attempted to reinforce that belief to project power towards his neighbors) was sanctions. \u00a0And many people now say, \u201cthe sanctions worked just fine, so we clearly didn\u2019t need to have an invasion,\u201d but, if memory serves me right, the sanctions weren\u2019t working \u2014 not in a way that was a long-term solution.<\/p>\n
Remember?<\/p>\n
\u201cPeace groups\u201d were telling us about the hardships that poor, suffering Iraqi children faced and protesting for an end to the sanctions. \u00a0We had humanitarian exceptions to the sanctions, but knew that Saddam was cheating and the \u201cpoor children\u201d weren\u2019t seeing the benefit, and these \u201cpeace groups\u201d were very vocal that these humanitarian modifications weren\u2019t sufficient.<\/p>\n
At the same time, France, in particular, but other countries, too, were eager to begin doing business with Iraq, and had already put into place contracts for business deals to be effective as soon as sanctions were lifted.<\/p>\n
What would have happened, had the invasion not happened? \u00a0 How long would the West have continued to reject the calls for loosened sanctions? <\/p>\n
I raise this because the situation in Gaza is similar.<\/p>\n
The latest updates are that Gaza has made the specific demand that it\u2019ll keep sending rockets to Israel, and fighters via tunnels, until the naval blockade is lifted, and, at the same time, the US is putting pressure on Israel via the ban on commercial flights to Tel Aviv (don\u2019t tell me that\u2019s not political). <\/p>\n
Of course, it\u2019s preposterous to think that if Israel lifts the blockade, Hamas is going to use their access to the sea to bring in fruits and veggies and medical equipment, schoolbooks, maybe components for building up their manufacturing capacity, etc. \u00a0We know that Hamas, which has spent untold fortunes not on the betterment of its people but on the building up of its military capacity, particularly its extensive network of tunnels, will set about to using its new access to the sea to import even more arms.<\/p>\n