And, on top of that, the column answers a question I had.
A nearby Delta Gas station has one of those portable sign boards that allows you to change the message, by changing the letters.
In the weeks surrounding the beginning of the Iraq War, the sign had various "peace" messages, like "War is not the Answer."
Not only did Iraq export oil under the Oil for Food program, it smuggled out oil, too.
As I read this, I remembered that many world leaders said "UN sanctions are working" or "containment of Iraq is working"....
Unseaworthy ships : Sanctions-busting vessels threaten life and environment
By Joanna Langley and Nissar Hoath | 28-04-2001[excerpt]Municipality workers faced a daunting task to clean up the leaked oil from the Zainab.The oil which earlier this month threatened the UAE's worst environmental catastrophe in recent years was almost certainly Iraqi. It leaked from the Zainab, an Iraqi-owned cargo vessel which had been converted to carry fuel oil.
The Zainab, which may have been sunk deliberately 32 kilometres north of Jebel Ali, was just one of dozens of vessels involved in smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of the sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's regime since the Gulf War.[snip]
The ship was part of a trade which not only breaks the UN sanctions, but compromises the Gulf's environment both on- and off-shore, along with the lives of hundreds of crew members who are often forced to work without pay and in appaling conditions.[snip]
All sanction-busting vessels brought to the UAE are auctioned under a federal law. The local authorities also auction the smuggled oil, the proceeds of which go to the United Nations.[snip]
According to Commander Jeff Gradeck, spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Maritime Force, they intercepted 82 vessels smuggling Iraq oil last year compared to 19 in 1999, a sharp increase of over 300 per cent.