Question:
Destroying water supplies is one of the dirtiest possible warfaretactics.

1. it is against the Geneva convention.

2. it primarily targets children. They are most vulnerable todehydration and death from disease from drinking from pollutedpuddles.

3. Death by dehydration is the most hideous way to die. Unless youhave experienced it, you have no inkling how horrible it is. It ismillions of times worse that you might imagine.

The US did it during the Gulf War, during the sanction bombings andagain most recently in Basra. There is little doubt it is an effectivetechnique of war in a desert country, but it a Nazi tactic. It is notsomething civilised people do.

Answer: Student researchers: Adria Cooper, Erik Wagle, Adam Cimino,Chris Salvano

During the Gulf War the United States deliberately bombedIraq's water system. After the war, the U.S. pushedsanctions to prevent importation of necessary supplies forwater purification. These actions resulted in the deaths ofthousands of innocent Iraqi civilians many of whom wereyoung children. Documents have been obtained from theDefense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which prove that thePentagon was fully aware of the mortal impacts on civiliansin Iraq and was actually monitoring the degradation ofIraq's water supply. The destruction of civilianinfrastructures necessary for health and welfare is a directviolation of the Geneva Convention.

The primary document is dated January 22, 1991 and istitled, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities." Thisdocument predicts what will take place when Iraq can nolonger import the vital commodities to cleanse their watersupply. It states that epidemics and disease outbreaks mayoccur because of pollutants and bacteria that exist inunpurified water. The document acknowledges the fact thatwithout purified drinking water, the manufacturing of foodand medicine will also be affected. The possibilities ofIraqis obtaining clean water, despite sanctions, along witha timetable describing the degradation of Iraq's watersupply was also addressed.

The remaining five documents from the DIA confirm thePentagon's monitoring of the situation in Iraq. In more thanone document, discussion of the likely outbreaks of diseasesand how they affect "particularly children" is discussed ingreat detail. The final document titled, "Iraq: Assessmentof Current Health Threats and Capabilities," is dated,November 15, 1991, and discusses the development of acounter-propaganda strategy that would blame Saddam Husseinfor the lack of safe water in Iraq. The United States’ insistence on using this type of sanctionagainst Iraq is in direct violation of the GenevaConvention. The Geneva Convention was created in 1979 toprotect the victims of international armed conflict. Itstates, "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove orrender useless, objects indispensable to the survival of thecivilian population such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock,drinking water installation and supplies, and irrigationworks, for the specific purpose of denying them for theirsustenance value to the civilian population or to theadverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order tostarve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for anyother motive."