Oil for Food Scandal Over

The Independent Inquiry Committee has today issued a Report on The Manipulation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme.
What does it contain?
A bunch of tables that list countries by the score and numerous companies that did business with Iraq.
Is it an indictment of these countries or is it something else? There are many private companies from many nations around the earth.
The situation that it grew out of was an intent to relieve everyday Iraqis from the weight of sanctions.
Sanctions had been imposed on Iraq by a small group of countries led by the United States and spurred on by Great Britain – one of Iraq’s principal competitors in the world oil trade.
The sanctions as applied were killing large numbers of children and throwing millions of Iraqis into poverty. They didn’t do anything to Hussein’s army or air force.
The Americans and British then tried to apply sanctions by removing the sanctions and allow Iraq to buy food with profits taken from oil sales.
The Iraqis have long been self-sufficient in food production – I believe the intersection of the Tigris and Euphrates is known as the cradle of modern farming.
In any case many companies began trading in Iraqi oil. Sometimes there were extra ‘fees’ that needed to be paid.
The numbers quoted by the Committee are fantastic especially in light of the fact that much of the money went into the Iraqi economy rather than to buy weapons.
The conclusion then would be that the program was run poorly and business competed effectively to get their share.
When we look at who took the most, however, we get names like Vietnam, Russia and Communist China.
When the world is doing one thing and only one voice is raised in opposition there are two possibilities.
1. The voice being raised is the voice of reason and we should all listen to it. Like the voice of an innocent like Jesus Christ, Bhudda or Mohammed.
2. The voice being raised is that of a fanatic.
The United States and Great Britain in the case of Iraq are not innocents so that leads me to believe that we are listening to fanatics.
No matter which way you slice it the invasion and occupation of Iraq remains an illegal act which has undermined international cooperation and raised war to the level of an acceptable level of diplomacy.
Will the United States and Great Britain now punish each and every nation and company that acted in their own best interests in the international market when dealing with Iraq?
Let us pretend that the will of the American people can be stretched to believe that the United States has the power to be the world’s lawyer (solicitor). In what court will these cases be heard? What nation would knowingly submit itself to the laws of the United States when the United States does not even obey them?
Shall we allow President Bush and Tony Blair to sit in government of the world and trade practices that have been in place for time immemorial?
Are they the saviors of the world or are they just mad because when they stole the whole pie they found the plate to be empty?
You can read the pompous and poorly prepared document at :
http://www.iic-offp.org/