Reference: Get your facts right, Postbag, Bangkok Post, April 29, 2008

George Bush Sr used two lies very effectively to gain congressional and public support for the Gulf War. The first lie was that Iraqi troops killed babies in a Kuwati hospital by removing them from incubators and throwing them on the floor. The only witness to this alleged horror was a 15-year-old Kuwati girl who later recanted. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the American Broadcasting Corporation, the Washington Post, and the New York Times reported after the war that the things that this girl said had never happened. The tearful testimony of the young girl and its analysis may be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2068209706002999721&hl=en. 

The other lie was that 250,000 Iraqi troops with 1,500 tanks were amassed on the Saudi border. They said that they had satellite pictures to prove it but that these pictures were classified and could not be released to the media. Russian satellite pictures of the very same spot taken at the same time were not classified, however, and they showed an empty desert with no soldiers and no tanks. Even diehard supporters of the Gulf War now distance themselves from these stories and tend to justify the war in other ways.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand