UN General Assembly
1990

Through the United Nations Security Council, Iraq has been judged - fairly judged - by a jury of its peers, the very nations of the Earth. Today the regime stands isolated and out of step with the times, separated from the civilized world not by space but by centuries. Iraq's unprovoked aggression is a throw-back to another era, a dark relic from a dark time. It has plundered Kuwait; it has terrorised innocent civilians; it has held even diplomats hostage. Iraq and its leaders must be held liable for these crimes of abuse and destruction. But this outrageous disregard for basic human rights does not come as a total surprise. Thousands of Iraqis have been executed on political and religious grounds, and even more through a genocidal, poison-gas war waged against Iraq's own Kurdish villagers.