March 22, 1999, Monday ,City Edition

 SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A19

 LENGTH: 760 words

 HEADLINE: A new policy needed for Iraq;
 DENIS J. HALLIDAY and JENNIFER E. HORAN;
 Denis J. Halliday is a former UN assistant secretary-general and former UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq. Jennifer E.
 Horan works with Boston Mobilization for Survival.
 

 BYLINE: By Denis J. Halliday and Jennifer E. Horan

 BODY:

    The administration's myopic obsession with Saddam Hussein has many casualties.

 One is Iraq itself, its people and rich culture condemned to slow strangulation by the United States/United Nations
 sanctions regime. Another is the prospect for positive political change in Iraq.

 A third is the opportunity to rid not only Iraq but the entire Middle East of weapons of mass destruction. UN Security
 Council Resolution 687 envisioned Iraqi disarmament as the first step toward the creation of a region-wide campaign to
 eliminate these weapons.

 All three can be salvaged, but only if the United States comes to its senses. Iraq needs to be let back into the family of
 nations. Retain arms control on it, but weapons monitoring needs to be a genuine, international instrument of
 disarmament and not be turned into a tool of US espionage and subversion, as was UNSCOM.

 To bully and brutalize the Iraqi people on account of Iraq's uncooperative leader is to punish innocents, not to practice
 diplomacy.

 Supporters of sanctions cannot hide behind exaggerated claims about Iraq's military power. The 1991 Gulf War has been
 dubbed a turkey shoot. Since December the United States and United Kingdom have bombed Iraq almost daily. Iraq has
 yet to down a single aircraft.

 Middle Eastern leaders undoubtedly resent it when Saddam tries to exploit Arab revulsion against the sanctions. But what
 government fears invasion by Iraq? Most want sanctions to end.

 Reality needs to set in regarding Iraq's legendary weapons of mass destruction. Even UNSCOM's hawkish chief, Richard
 Butler, has conceded that if Iraqi disarmament were a five-lap race, we would be three-quarters of the way around the
 final lap.

 The humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq created by sanctions cannot be brushed aside. In 1991 Gulf War coalition forces
 bombed Iraq's entire civilian infrastructure - electric, water, health, and sewage systems. The sanctions regime precludes
 their repair.

 Before 1991 the chief health problem vexing Iraqi pediatricians was overeating. Now they watch helplessly as infants die
 from easily treatable conditions like diarrhea.

 UNICEF estimates that more than 500,000 children under age 5 have died from lack of access to food, medicine, and safe
 water. In 1996, "60 Minutes" asked then Ambassador Madeleine Albright if the price of "containing" Saddam was worth
 the deaths of more children than were killed in Hiroshima. Her response? It was "a very hard choice," but "we think the
 price is worth it."

 Why does the administration not see that many perceive support for sanctions as support for genocide?

 Denied any hope for a normal life, Iraqi youth are growing up embittered. The conditions of their upbringing are in many
 measures worse than those that gave rise to European fascism after the First World War.

 Already the Baathist party is contending with rising political extremism among its ranks, especially the younger members.
 US coup-mounting efforts may backfire. The new leadership would likely be less, not more, cooperative with Western
 powers.

 So what is to be done?

 First, maintain strict controls on Iraq's military. Extend the ban on arms sales to the entire Middle East. As the permanent
 member states of the UN Security Council are responsible for 85 percent of the region's arms sales, this will not be an
 easy task. But it is necessary for lasting security.

 Lift the oil embargo. All credible Iraqi dissident groups call for an end to sanctions. Let Iraq use oil revenues to rebuild its
 civilian infrastructure. Give the Iraqi people a chance to struggle for something other than their families' survival.

 Create a credible weapons inspections regime for Iraq. Its staff must be loyal to the United Nations, not to any member
 state. The International Atomic Energy Agency provides a model. Iraq's cooperation with IAEA give grounds to believe this
 proposal would work.

 Get serious about cracking down on weapons of mass destruction. Sanction companies and governments that
 manufacture and export biological and chemical weapons material to any country in the Middle East. Allow UNSCOM to go
 public with the names of the businesses that sold Iraq the means to make weapons of mass destruction.

 Engineer a long-term strategy for the Middle East. To survive, all these countries will have to share their impressive human
 and natural resources. A Middle Eastern version of the European Union is not as ludicrous as it may sound.

 Above all, realize that 23 million people live in Iraq. End their siege.