As the US continues to press its case to the United Nations for an invasion of Iraq, many have been questioning the Bush administration’s motives for war.

Today on Democracy Now we go back in time to another war and another Bush administration. On August 2nd, `1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The then Bush administration and its allies launched an all-out offensive against Iraq, which came to be known as the Persian Gulf War.

At that time, the Bush administration and the US media promoted the war in the Persian Gulf as a just war against an evil dictator by the name of Saddam Hussein. US soldiers were supposedly on their mission of mercy to save Kuwaiti children from the hands of Hussein, and to prevent the annihilation of the Saudi people.

More than six hundred thousand US soldiers were deployed, some ninety thousand tons of bombs were dropped and more than 200,000 Iraqis were killed.

“The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm”, a documentary by filmmakers Audrey Brohy and Gerard Ungerman tells the real story behind that war. It traces the illegal arming of Iraq by the US government. It traces the US use of depleted uranium, which sickened hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and US soldiers. And the film questions the Pentagon’s propaganda.

Pentagon officials justified the war by claiming there was a massive Iraqi military buildup along the Saudi Arabian border, and they said they had satellite photos to prove it. But they refused to release the photos. The film suggests the US government may have been more interested in Iraq’s oil reserves ­ the second largest in the world. One US official described the oil fields as “too important to be left to Arabs.”

“Hidden Wars of Desert Storm” is the culmination of a two year investigation by the filmmakers. It answers questions about the Persian Gulf War using documents never before seen on television and backed by interviews with Desert-Storm Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former UN Iraq Program Director Dennis Halliday, former chief UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and many others.

Tape:

• “Hidden Wars of Desert Storm” Directors: Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy Narrated by John Hurt

Related link:

• Hidden Wars of Desert Storm