Persian Gulf Quotes

“Israel's demonstration of its military prowess in 1967 confirmed its status as a 'strategic asset,' as did its moves to prevent Syrian intervention in Jordan in 1970 in support of the PLO. Under the Nixon doctrine, Israel and Iran were to be 'the guardians of the Gulf,' and after the fall of the Shah, Israel's perceived role was enhanced. Meanwhile, Israel has provided subsidiary services elsewhere, including Latin America, where direct US support for the most murderous regimes has been impeded by Congress. While there has been internal debate and some fluctuation in US policy, much exaggerated in discussion here, it has been generally true that US support for Israel's militarization and expansion reflected the estimate of its power in the region.

The effect has been to turn Israel into a militarized state completely dependent on US aid, willing to undertake tasks that few can endure, such as participation in Guatemalan genocide. For Israel, this is a moral disaster and will eventually become a physical disaster as well. For the Palestinians and many others, it has been a catastrophe, as it may sooner or later be for the entire world, with the growing danger of superpower confrontation.”
― Noam Chomsky

“It doesn't seem right to me. I'd rather folks paid more for oil, than pay for their oil with my life.”
― Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

“Arsenio found himself trusting his heart more than once during the brief but intense Persian Gulf War in 1990–1991.

ARSENIO HALL: "I was going to do a joke about what Saddam Hussein would say to his wife on the morning of January fifteenth, 1991 [the start of the campaign]. When he was going to work I wondered out loud if he would say, ‘Honey, don’t wait up!' "

On Monday he decided not to use the gag. Then on Tuesday, when the staff talked about it, he mulled over the idea again.

ARSENIO HALL: “I put a little extra thought into it. Much as I wanted to try to make people laugh in a world that was not always funny, I knew I was doing a joke about war, and that the potential result of war is loss of life — so I’m real, real careful.”

Then that night on the show, his guest, Farrah Fawcett, told him that she thought if women ran the world, there wouldn’t be any wars.
Eventually, ”I chickened out on [the joke],“ Arsenio said. ”As much as I believe our country should function from a position of strength, what’s going on now is not worth bloodshed. I place a lot of value on life.”
― Norman King, Arsenio Hall