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EXTENSIONS of REMARKS July 16, 1991 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS LET's EASE the SUFFERING of in Iraq

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EXTENSIONS of REMARKS July 16, 1991 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS LET's EASE the SUFFERING of in Iraq 18548 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS July 16, 1991 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS LET'S EASE THE SUFFERING OF in Iraq. As a result, Saddam is free to per­ Emaciated pets now prowl Baghdad alleys, THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ secute his own people just as he persecuted set loose by owners who can no longer afford the people of Kuwait. to feed them. International aid has thus far HON. WM. S. BROOMREID We may not be able to remove Saddam, but staved off the apocalyptic rates of disease we can certainly ensure that his people, and and malnutrition feared a few months ago, OF MICHIGAN but conditions remain ripe for an epidemic. not he and his cronies, are in a position to IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES On a back street of Saddam City, the Mosan benefit from the country's financial assets and family spent a recent day bailing raw sewage Tuesday, July 16, 1991 its great wealth of natural resources. from the front room of their mud brick Mr. BROOMFIELD. Mr. Speaker, yester­ In the recent war in the gulf, America's great home. With Iraq's water system crippled by day's Wall Street Journal brought a fresh re­ scientific minds and military strategists were bomb damage and lack of spare parts, pipes minder of the pain and suffering being en­ able to wage a war of terrific ferocity but lim­ often burst, flooding streets with fetid green dured by the people of Iraq. ited scope. Many Iraqi civilians died, but I'd sludge. The Mosans' three-room hovel, home to 13 In the words of the Journal's reporter, Tony like to think that many more survived because America was intent on aiming its precision people, has no furniture and only one appli­ Horwitz, who is in Saddam City, "Iraq's econ­ ance: a creaking refrigerator cooling crusts omy is in a free fall, and so are most of its weapons against Saddam and his military and of bread and chunks of fat, the poor Iraqi's people. In the poorest districts, barefoot chil­ sparing as much as possible Iraq's civilian cooking oil. A teen-age boy smiles from a dren scavenge the streets for edible garbage. population from the horrors of war. photo on the wall. The Mosans' oldest son, he Huge lines form, Moscow-like, on the rumor of It's time for some precision diplomacy. We was killed in the Iran-Iraq war and remains meat arriving at government shops. Beggars want to make sure that the outcome of this the family's main breadwinner, earning $30 a are suddenly rife, as are young prostitutes, war is not only the defeat of a reckless dic­ month in death benefits. In this Shiite Muslim district, where riots peddling sex for $10." tator but the development of lasting friend­ ships with the people of Iraq and the Middle erupted in March, there is little love for Sad­ In case anyone gets the impression that the dam Hussein. But for 17-year-old Kadriya misery is universal, Horwitz points out that East. I believe the Penny resolution is a good Mosan, sanctions make no sense. "The Ku­ Saddam's corrupt inner circle is benefiting step in that direction, and urge my colleagues waitis have their country back," she says. hugely from the post-war economic confusion, "So why are we still being punished?" to support it. I insert the Wall Street Journal's and that Saddam's son, Oday, frequently ar­ article in the RECORD: RUNAWAY INFLATION rives at the five-star Rasheed Hotel "in his [From the Wall Street Journal, July 15, 1991] Nearby, at the Saddam Hussein Hospital, black Porsche, wearing a silk shirt and smok­ CASUALTIES OF WAR-IN IRAQ TODAY, CHIL- shortages are forcing X-ray teams to use ex­ ing a Havana cigar, to visit the hotel's posh DREN SCAVENGE FOR FOOD, ECONOMISTS pired film, which often clouds in developing. discotheque." DRIVE CABS A lack of anesthetics limits surgeons to In the war against Saddam Hussein, Amer­ emergency cases. There are no gloves and no (By Tony Horwitz) catheters. At other hospitals, patients on ica scored one of the most convincing and SADDAM CITY, lRAQ.-Khalid Saad measures clear-cut battlefield victories in its 200-year machines needing constant electricity, such despair in the quantity of gold swaying on as kidney dialysis, are dying during power history. his jeweler's scales. outrages. To find a parallel, you would have to go On a stifling day in this poor Baghdad sub­ In Saddam City and other destitute areas, back to America's participation in World War urb, a pregnant woman pauses in the cool of war and sanctions have deepened chronic II. Yet one reason we look with so much pride Mr. Saad's shop. She stands as if to go-then poverty. Many residents are accustomed, to our participation in that effort was the diplo­ gropes inside her abaya and unclasps the however grimly, to living on the margin. necklace nuzzling her breast. Much more sudden is the impoverishment of matic victory we achieved in the aftermath of "Are you sure?" Mr. Saad asks. She nods the war. Our two major opponents are now and turns away as the gold chain clatters middle-class Iraqis, and of the once-pristine among our closest allies. onto his scales. The necklace, a wedding capital they inhabit. In World War II, America was unrelenting in present, fetches the equivalent of $80 for the Downtown Baghdad, a modern sprawl of 19-year-old newlywed. "My husband will for­ crisp towers and futuristic monuments, is its prosecution of the war, yet it was generous acquiring the shabby air of poor Arab cities to those it defeated. We have never been in­ give me," she says, "when he sees all the food I bring home." such as Cairo. In the clotted traffic, snarled terested in waging war against people of other For Mr. Saad, such scenes have become a by the bombing of Tigris River bridges, taxis nations, but always against those unscrupu­ dispiriting ritual. Hoisting a sack holding with broken windshields cough and gasp on lous officials in power who force their people one day's haul of purchased jewelry, he says, the impure, low-octane fuel sold at local into foolhardy military adventures. "Before the war, I would not buy this much pumps. Lights dim as merchants turn on air It's time we turned our most recent victory in a month." conditioners. Whole sections of the city peri­ on the field of battle into a convincing victory Iraq's economy is in free fall, and so are odically black out. Most telephones are use­ most of its people. In the poorest districts, less. And to keep pace with runaway infla­ in the field of diplomacy. tion, the state is printing bank notes so flim­ To help get that process moving, I recently barefoot children scavenge the streets for ed­ ible garbage. Huge lines form, Moscow-like, sy that some bills are printed on only one cosponsored a concurrent resolution offered on the rumor of meat arriving at govern­ side. by Congressman PENNY that would encourage ment shops. Beggars are suddenly rife, as are THE DEATH OF SOCIALISM? our Government to ask the United Nations to young prostitutes, peddling sex for SlO. The state also is abandoning market con­ release a portion of Iraq's frozen assets to NO EPIDEMIC-YET trols in hopes that the private sector can UNICEF. Iraq's plight poses a conundrum for the shore up this once-centralized economy. The sole purpose of this move would be to West as it debates continuing sanctions. Eco­ Each week brings new decrees, relaxing rules provide medical and humanitarian assistance nomic despair clearly sharpens discontent; it on import licenses or currency exchange. As to the Iraqi people, particularly its children. appears that most Iraqis blame Saddam Hus­ a result, Baghdad now teems with vendors The funds would be funneled through UNICEF sein, not the allies, for their country's col­ and hustlers. Even state food stores have so that the money would be used to feed and lapse. But because Iraqis feel powerless to spawned bazaars, with government workers change their regime, sanctions are admin­ buying goods at subsidized prices and then clothe hungry Iraqi citizens and not to fill up istering pain without any promise of a cure. reselling them at a 200% markup on the side­ the gas tank in Oday Hussein's black Porsche. "The embargo doesn't touch Saddam or the walk outside. After World War II, American troops occu­ people around him," says a Baghdad shop­ This sudden opening of the economy "is pied both Germany and Japan. We have nei­ keeper, lunching on cucumber and bread. the unannounced death of the socialist sys­ ther the ability nor the desire to do the same "All you are doing is starving us." tem of the Baath Party," says Dominique • This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. July 16, 1991 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 18549 Dufour, head of the Red Cross delegation in recently went to India and flew a plane-load a Baghdad auction house, buyers bid up to Iraq. "It's a free-for-all." of parts from there to Jordan. In Amman, he 12,000 dinars (about $1,500) for silk carpets Job security is one of the first casualties.
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