moving beyond Kuwait’s border. This was shown

into trenches behind minefields or in bunkers, not si

tte ‘Oo th Saite i

-

A somewhat belated response to Junior Gallant’s letter of January 23rd. In this letter, Mr. Gallant attempts a defense of the United Nations and, specifi- | cally, the United States’ reactiontolraq’sannexation The Gulf War was fought because the US. haskept

of Kuwait. This defense portrays George Bush as itself frighteningly dependent on foreign oil stocks. | Kuwait's saviour and Saddam Husseinasthe world’s twas fought because it was politically expedientto next Hitler. defend the rich monarchist governments that supplies

most of this oil. It was fought because a no-name — That this idea is often accepted withoutquestionisa presidentneeded a reason to be re-elected. It was 1

credit to the U_S. government’s increasing ability to fought because a recession was dragging the countr

silly to even consider the lxaiviccapeciaae match for the U_N. coalition. |

manipulate ‘mass perception’ of events through the mood down. Pick any or all of these reasons. media. The fact that previous to the war, Bush had 4 virtually okayed Saddam’s plan to push pack the The real tragedy is that once the U_N. forces finish -d border between the two countries is most often ig- ‘liberating Kuwait,” having killed over 60 ,000 peopl nored. It is rarely mentioned that U_S. reports of they weren’taroundinsuchstrengthtohelpthe ~ Iraqi atrocities were grossly exaggerated and some- Kurds or the Kuwaitis, mostly Palestinians, being _ times fabricated. It was only briefly told that the prosecuted for ‘aiding’ the Iraqis, even when this aid extent of the gulf oil spills were also exaggerated. was given under duress. Having returned the royal ~

The military’s absolute controlofthemedianotonly family to Kuwait, assuring its supply of oil once went practically unquestioned, butwasseenasneces- again, the U_S. is turning a blind eye to the very sary for reasons of national security. Itstruckmeas violations it supposedly rallied against.

ironic that the U.S. media would comment on the fact

that Iraq only released images of Saddam in pleasant It is impossible to say that ‘‘wenowknowwhat — situations when the U_S. itselfmanagedtoreducethe happened.’’ Whenthose expressing opposing opin-*

war to fireworks and video games. ions are simple-mindedly denounced and dismissed “*anti-American,’” itbecomes very easy to justify —

in another propaganda coup, the U_S. managed to nearly anything. I have no doubt that future senator

convince itself, if not the international community, will have to explain why they were so unpatriotic a:

that this war was about human rights. This comes to question the U_S. actions.

from a country that not only still espouses the virtues 4 of capital punishment, but spends billions of dollars The somewhat less blindly patriotic but no less sin-7 on external military exercises though it cannot find cere, 4 moncy to solve its increasing problems with drugs, G. Miniely

the homeless, education, or providing basic medical

needs. This from a country that supplied both Iran gry wii Ee eee ae ee

and Iraq with military technology needed to build 7 = biological weapons and to kill tens of thousands of The a La ST Bir: THE |i ORMED 5 ae os]

people.

Given all that, it would still have been possible that

** __-l faq Was 4 real threat to world peace.’” Unfortu- nately, Mr. gallant does not explain this threat tous and if we look at the facts, it becomes apparent that from the moment the U_N. forces landed their coali- tion, there was no threat. Saddam had no intention of

through his military’s primarily defensive posture; the army was spread out along the Saudi Arabia borders as to protect against retaliation, not concen- trated for movement; the front lines were found dug

ready to move out; the Scud missiles. Sot contataine _ UPEI X-P RESS , Margh y, bela