After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Israeli government warned the American government that if America did not attack Iraq then it would. America was forced to engage in a proxy Jewish war in order to prevent Israel from triggering a regional war in which a number of Arab states would have sided with Iraq and, thereby, forced Israel into using some of its nuclear weapons. This war was less about oil and 'restoring despotism to Kuwait' than protecting Israel.

The Allies had a choice in confronting Iraq; negotiate, sanctions or war. There was no need to go to war because sanctions would have been effective. This is the critical factor which makes the Gulf war immoral. Bush chose war. This was his war.

Saddam Hussein was not a monster and some of the causes for which he fought were just, i.e. opposing Western exploitation of Kuwaiti' oil resources (which belong not to western consumers but to the Arab masses); Arab nationalism and a Palestinian State. Iraq has to be condemned for its invasions of Iran and Kuwait; its threat to destroy Israel; and its use of chemical weap­ons but it has to be recognized that, since the second world war, America has caused far more death and dest­ruction from wars than Iraq has ever done. The number of deaths caused by American imperialism DURING PEACE­TIME far exceeds the number of deaths caused by Iraq during its wars against Iran, the Kurds and Kuwait. In addition, Britain has killed more people with gas attacks in Iraq than Saddam Hussein himself. It is immoral to wage war against a country which has been falsely defined as monstrous.

It was known that a war would cause widescale destruction to the planet's life sustaining processes. The war was immoral given its known consequences. The United Nations should have refused to authorize this war on environmental grounds alone irrespective of the destruction impact it would have on humans.

The Allies' insistence on respect for the authority and legitimacy of the United Nations was fraudulent. Over the last few decades the Allies, especially Britain and America, have often treated the United Nations with the utmost contempt. America has been on the verge of pull­ing out of the United Nations for years and, by the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, found itself in the embarrassing position that its membership had lapsed. So, in order to submit resolutions about the invasion to the United Nations it was forced to hurriedly pay its membership fee.

The Allies' advocacy of total adherence to UN resolut­ions was outright hypocrisy and a plain sham. Britain and America have vetoed dozens of resolutions submitted to the Security Council protesting against acts of agg­ression - including, ridiculously enough, a resolution condemning Iraq's, American inspired, invasion of Iran. They have ignored resolutions that have been in exist­ence for over twenty years, i.e. those relating to Palestine. But, by far and away the worst example of illegal behaviour, is that America has legitimized actions condemned in UN resolutions, e.g. the formal recognition of Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and the continued Zionist colonization of the occupied territories. The United States has also condoned and aided Israel's illegal acquisition of weapons grade uranium and the construction of nuclear weapons.

Given that it was immoral for the Allies to have 'secret' war aims which went far beyond UN resolutions; and even more immoral to use these resolutions to camoflauge their illegal war aims; it was nothing less than a moral depravity for the Allies to insist that Iraq obey the strict letter of UN law solely in order to ensure that they could fulfil their illegal war aim which was to cold bloodedly exterminate tens of thousands of Iraqi troops. General Chief of Staff Colin Powell stated weeks before the war that they were going to "CUT OFF AND KILL" the Iraqi army in Kuwait.

The Allies use of carpet bombing and weapons of mass destruction were war crimes.

One of the most telling pieces of evidence that the Allies were manipulating the United Nations and pursuing their own, illegal, war aims was the total eclipse of the United Nations during the war. Firstly, the Allies opposed any Security Council meetings during the war which, in the end, was forced to meet only when Iraq put forward its first peace plan. And then, when it did meet, America and Britain insisted the meetings were held in closed session. Secondly, Perez de Cuellar, General Secretary of the United Nations, stat­ed that, "This is a United States war, not a United Nations war." (Guardian 13.2.91. p.21). Thirdly, just as the groundwar was about to get underway it was reported that, "More than 500 staff members (of the United Nations) have signed a petition asking the Secretary - General, Perez de Cuellar, to call for an immediate cease fire." (Guardian 22.2.91. p.2).