ABSTRACT
On August 6, 1990, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 661 imposing a trade and financial embargo against Iraq. The objective was to persuade Iraqi forces to withdraw from Kuwait. The embargo was the most comprehensive and effective economic measure the world had ever known. Economic sanctions have targeted the wrong party in Iraq, i.e., the poor, the helpless, and the children. The economic sanctions continued to strangle the people of Iraq, and the country has been pushed to the verge of collapse, placing the life of its civilian population in great peril. Instead of achieving its intended objective of weakening Saddam Hussein's grip on power, the policy of economic strangulation has backfired. The US strategy has been based on the faulty assumption that if one maintains the economic sanctions long enough to cause enough hardship and suffering, people will revolt against their ruler.
