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Sanctions have hurt Iraqi people
CNN Correspondent Ben Wedeman
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Noisy demonstrations and a display of fanatical devotion to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: these are the images of Iraq seen around the world in times of crisis.
But behind the fiery rhetoric and defiant gestures one detects the uncomfortable reality that international sanctions have hurt the Iraqi people far more than their leaders.
International Gulf War sanctions allow Iraq to export only a limited amount of oil. The country has few resources to import food and medicine -- and the result, according to aid agencies, is widespread illness and malnutrition.
CNN Correspondent Ben Wedeman reports
The fate of 8-year-old Omar illustrates the problem. Omar is dying of leukemia, and even though doctors have been giving him blood transfusions and massive doses of Valium to kill the pain, there is nothing else the doctors can do for him. They say Omar will die within days.
Since medicine is in short supply, doctors try to make the process of dying less painful by hiding the truth from the parents.
"The family, they know about the diagnosis. But we don't tell them the whole story of the treatment -- I mean that we have not enough medicine for their children," a medical staff member told CNN.
And with despair comes anger: "After seeing our children like this we will never forgive America. All of this, you see my child, is because of America," one parent said.
But while life in Iraq may go from bad to worse, some things stay the same: the president's power in the region is unbroken. Dissent in Iraq is illegal and punishment is swift for those who dare challenge the regime.
While some Iraqis have managed to prosper under the international sanctions, most people are resigned to the status quo because they are either unable or unwilling to bring about change.
Most Iraqis have found ways to get by. Life is a daily struggle under increasingly difficult conditions: cash is in short supply, prices are high and much of the country's infrastructure is in a state of disrepair.
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