NOTES
1.
These figures are drawn from the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) database presented in World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, Washington, GPO, editions for 1991–1992 and 1996, as converted into constant 1997 dollars using the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) deflators issues for the fiscal year (FY) 1998 federal budget.
2.
The text of the recent WHO and FAO reports is available on the Internet, as well as from UN bookstores, and the reader should carefully examine the original reports. They uncritically accept Iraqi figures for the base year of 1990, ignore the previous impact of the Iran-Iraq War, ignore Iraq’s civil wars against its Kurds and Shi’ites, do not describe the sampling techniques used in detail, ignore the real-world increase in food output available in Iraqi markets 1994–1997, imply that Iraq’s agricultural problems are totally import-driven rather than the result of Iraqi government policy, and even sometimes argue that a shift away from reliance on food imports is damaging the Iraqi environment. Data for recent years are often lacking or are drawn from Iraqi inputs that are directly contradicted by Iraqi reporting in other sources. For example, the WHO reports make claims about lasting damage to Iraqi water purification plants without any analysis of the actual damage done during the Gulf War or mention of Iraqi claims to have repaired the infrastructure involved. The standards of reporting and analysis used by the WHO and FAO are so unbelievably low and politically naive that they could not survive minimal peer group review in any normal research effort, and they cast doubt on the professional integrity of both organizations.
3.
CIA, World Factbook, 1996, Washington, GPO, 1997, ‘‘Iraq’’; Reuters, October 16, 1997, 0921.
4.
CIA, World Factbook, 1996, Washington, GPO, 1997, ‘‘Iraq’’; CIA, World Factbook, 1990, Washington, GPO, 1991, ‘‘Iraq.’’
5.
CIA, World Factbook, 1996, Washington, GPO, 1997; IISS, Military Balance, 1997–1998, p. 127.
6.
CIA, World Factbook, 1996, Washington, GPO, 1997 ‘‘Iraq.’’
7.
USCENTCOM briefing by ‘‘senior military official, ’’ Pentagon, January 28, 1997, pp. 2, 5–8, 10; Jane’s Defense Weekly, July 9, 1997, p. 4.
8.
USCENTCOM briefing by ‘‘senior military official, ’’ Pentagon, January 28, 1997, pp. 2, 5–8, 10; Washington Times, February 1, 1997, p. A-13.
9.
Reuters, September 4, 1996, 0911; Jane’s Pointer, November 1994, p. 2; Associated Press, September 9, 1996, 0129; Washington Times, January 30, 1997, p. A-3; February 1, 1997, p. A-13.
10.
US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1993–1994, Washington, GPO, 1995, p. 67.
11.
US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1989, Washington, GPO, 1990, p. 51; US Department of Defense, Conduct of the Persian Gulf War, Vol. I, Washington, Department of Defense, 1992, p. 4.
12.
US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1989, Washington, GPO, 1990, Table I; US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers, 1996, Washington, GPO, 1997, Table I.
-64-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Iraq and the War of Sanctions:Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Contributors: Anthony H. Cordesman - Author.
Publisher: Praeger.
Place of publication: Westport, CT.
Publication year: 1999.
Page number: 64.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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