Patrick Cockburn on Iraq
April 28, 2008
Media Matters with Bob McChesney has been an important source of my political education. Back when I was living in Dubai, I would escape the intellectual aridity of the place by downloading an episode to my mp3 player and going for a walks or a drive. I would highly recommend going through the archive and listening to interviews past and present. McChesney is the world’s leading media scholar, and his interviewees are all the top names in their respective fields.
Cockburn’s reply to one of the questions about sanctions is a bit convoluted so let me address it here. First of all, the Kurdish region fared better under the sanctions because it was receiving a far higher proportion of the Oil-for-Food money than South Central Iraq. Secondly, unlike south central, the Kurdish region did not face the kind of crippling embargo that devastated Iraqi society. Thirdly, Kurds were trading with Iran, Turkey and Syria throughout the period of the sanctions. But lastly — and most importantly — the money was not handled by Saddam; it was deposited in a UN escrow account and much of it was going to service the reparation claims not just from Kuwait, but even entities such as British Bird-watchers Society, KFC, etc. Here I would highly recommend Hans Von Sponeck’s A Different Kind of War: The UN Sanctions Regime in Iraq.
And here Pepe Escobar of the excellent Real News continues his discussion with Patrick Cockburn on Muqtada al-Sadr.
