ABSTRACT
The American Friends Service Committee's (AFSC) experience with Iraq before and after the Gulf War illustrates the many dilemmas the organization faces regarding both the efficacy and the morality of sanctions. The working group reached several conclusions regarding the morality of using a sanctions regime. Sanctions must be a coordinated part of a "package" of approaches designed to alleviate the grossest aspects of a situation while allowing time for sanctions to "bite", and for a political process to move forward toward resolution. The Service Committee favored sanctions following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait because it opposed the aggression and wanted to reverse its consequences, and because it wanted the world community to address, without force of arms, the problems that the invasion created. The committee quickly confronted contradictions that challenged its optimism about sanctions as a humane alternative to war.
