SANCTIONS AND THE POLITICS OF DOMINANCE 55 comprehensive sanctions, having the force of international law, no longer seemed that remote. Entire local communities, cities, and states were moving towards the implementation of unilateral sanctions, and eventually the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act was passed, over President Reagan's veto, by the United States Congress. In 1993, the African National Congress, which was then almost on the verge of officially acquiring power, pleaded with the world community to remove the sanctions against South Africa and restore it to a respectable place in the community of nations. The case of South Africa might well have been the most well-known instance of the force of sanctions in international politics, but for the fact that since mind-1990, the most rigorous sanctions ever known to have been inflicted on one nation have been in place against Iraq. In the days leading to the so-called 'Gulf War' in early 1991, there was again much speculation about the effectiveness of sanctions, and rfo one doubted that after Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait, it was incumbent upon the world community to show its strong disapproval of Saddam Hussein's irredentist designs by enforcing comprehensive sanctions against Iraq. This was accomplished by Resolution 661 of the UN Security Council, which urged all member states to adhere to a strict embargo on all exports from, and imports to, iraq. The resolution exempted from the embargo 'supplies intended strictly for medical purposes, and in humanitarian circumstances, foodstuffs' (Dreze and Gazdar 1992:924). Another committee of the Security Council, known as the Sanctions Committee, was set up to ensure that there would be compliance with the resolution, and to report its observations and recommendations to the Security Council. Iraq was to contest, as it does so even today, what is generally conceded to be the exceedingly narrow interpretation of the exemptions, and even before the commencement of hostilities between Iraq and the American-led international force, the sanctions had crippled Iraqs economy. Proponents of sanctions, who opposed armed intervention, argued that Iraq had already been greatly debilitated, and that the rigorous maintenance of sanctions was bound to produce Iraq's submission; on the other < hand, the United States and its allies, less persuaded that sanctions would render Iraq compliant, successfully pushed for a decisive military engagement with Iraq to compel its withdrawal from Kuwait. More than seven years later, the sanctions against Iraq have not been lifted owing to Iraq's abrogation of its numerous obligations under international law, and there is unanimous consent that sanctions have had a disastrous impact on the lives of Iraqis. Before sanctions were first enforced in the late summer of 1990, Iraq unquestionably had among the highest standards of living in the Arab world, a flourishing and prosperous middle class, and a formidable social welfare system that provided enviable material security to ordinary