Quotes about the war (1991)

From the March 1991 issue of the Socialist Standard

“The colonial powers drew the boundaries of the Middle East within living memory, with nothing in mind other than their own strategic interests". 
 “US insistency upon respect for international law merely serves to safeguard a capitalist world order based on the burning of ‘liquid gold’”.
  “One wonders if Mr Bush has lost his marbles in the propaganda war he is intent on waging? Almost everybody knows it is oil. and oil alone, that motivates him in the Gulf'.
  “It is breathtakingly hypocritical for countries such as Britain and the US to talk about curtailing Saddam Hussein's aggression when these two countries among others were responsible for selling armaments to him in the first instance”.
  “Saddam is one of many political gangsters armed and supported by the Western (and Eastern) powers. He is now threatening the economic interests of the United States and its allies and they have decided to eliminate him”.
  “This war is not about the ‘liberation of Kuwait' but for the liberation of Kuwaiti oil’".
  “After the slaughter of previous wars in this century it is heart-breaking to see human lives sacrificed in a conflict between US global business interests and the regional aspirations of a brutal despot, who until recently was propped up by those same interests”.
  “Last July if you killed an Iraqi you would be guilty of murder. Now if you kill an Iraqi you are a patriot. Somebody decided we were going to war and what were ordinary people going about their business became an attacking force killing people they never met before”.
—Extracts from letters that have appeared in the Irish Times since the outbreak of the war.

Blogger's Note: 
It's pretty obvious that the above were written by Irish comrades.

This selection of quotes appeared alongside the 'Is a fourth world war inevitable?' article.