As for the impact of sanctions - I always get uneasy when people throw numbers around in this kind of context. There are too mnay unknowns, and too many reasons for manipulating the figures up or down for political reasons.

And it can get quite complicated - for example I was reading a piece today which used figures about deaths from sanctions as a justification for a war against Iraq, arguing that in the long run (touch wood) that might mean fewer deaths.

That said, while accepting that there are people who might have reasons for exaggerating the imoact of sanctions, I'd feel very uneasy indeed about minimising the effect on civilians, especially children, of the kinds of shortages that sanctions have meant. It's important not to fall into anything that might shade into something analogous to holocaust denial, where some of the same considerations could apply.