NEW YORK TIMES MAKES GLARING ERROR ABOUT IRAQ WAR -- THEN CORRECTS IT INCORRECTLY

[Uncle Joe]

Two decades after its catastrophic failure on Iraq, the Times still can’t get basic facts straight.

Jon Schwarz
March 30 2023, 4:37 p.m.

(snip)

The UNSCOM inspections protocol was created by U.N. Security Council Resolution 687, which ended the 1991 Gulf War following Iraq’s retreat from Kuwait. UNSC 687 demanded that Iraq disclose all its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs. Harsh sanctions would remain on Iraq until it had verifiably done so. At that point, however, the sanctions would be lifted. Also, Iraq’s disarmament would “represent steps towards the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction.”

But President George H.W. Bush immediately announced that the U.S. would ignore all of this, and maintain the sanctions — whether Iraq was or wasn’t disarmed — until Saddam Hussein was forced from power. (You can read about this in the New York Times.) In fact, the sanctions were seen as a way to make life in Iraq so miserable that Iraqis would be motivated to overthrow Saddam.

This stance was later reiterated by President Bill Clinton, as well as his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. What UNSC 687 said didn’t matter; sanctions would remain until Saddam was gone.

(snip)

The Times coverage of Iraq and its purported weapons of mass destruction was so atrocious in the lead-up to war in 2003 that the paper eventually had to issue an extensive mea culpa. So you’d like to believe that it now would concentrate on getting it right, at long last. However, that’s clearly a vain dream. It’s inevitable that for the rest of our lives, the Times will intermittently claim Saddam threw out the inspectors. Our only hope to prevent this would be to get reporters at the Times a subscription to the paper.

https://theintercept.com/2023/03/30/new-york-times-iraq-war-error/

[Marcus IM]

1. Sec Albright thought that the deaths of 500,000 children as a result of sanctions was "worth it".

Hard to regain trust in someone who says such a thing, for me.

This attitude, and acceptance and defense of it by one of our historic prominent Democratic Secretaries of State is very worrying to me.
Why do I say this?
My homeland is currently suffering from US extraterritorial sanctions specifically designed to destroy the Cuban economy, that is resulting in hard conditions relating to food and cooking fuel ... well ... mission accomplished.
Except for one thing ... Cuban solidarity remains strong!

Ending sanctions on Cuba forthwith should be a Democratic Party plank - F#ck the intransigent RW "exiles" who dictate US policy and get full coverage of their RW mewling.