Working Class Calendar

I would say for most of the coalition countries it was to defend their geopolitical and material interests in the region or those of their allies.

Btw, according to this 1991 article linked from the Wikipedia, it was also a highly propagandized war in the USA.

You're forgetting to ask the question, why was Iraq having a beef with Kuwait. If the US's motives were so pure why did they and the Saudis have to lie to Congress about dead babies in incubators exactly?

I highly recommend the DW documentary Iraq: Destruction of a Nation

Not only 75-250k manifested against this war that caused more that a 200.000 deaths. From the libcom link:

In several countries workers went on strike against the war, or against attacks on their working conditions resulting from the war.

In Bangladesh there was a one day general strike in September 1990 protesting against the despatch of Bangladeshi troops to the Gulf. At least 50 people were injured when police used steel- tipped batons against demonstrators. In Pakistan there was a general strike in February against the US bombing of Iraq. Palestinians in the city of Jericho held a three day strike in mourning for the 300 killed in the US attack on the Baghdad bomb shelter. Militants defied the Israeli imposed curfew to call for action through their megaphones.

In the first week of the war, more than 2 million Spanish workers stopped work for two hours demanding an end to the war and the recall of three Spanish warships. In Germany draft resisters forced to work as hospital orderlies went on strike for three days in opposition to the war, and in Italy, 100,000 workers and 30,000 students stopped work on 22 February.

Students took action in many places. In Turkey, 70% of universities were hit by anti-war boycotts in November 1990. At a school in suburban Berkley (near Detroit), 30 high school students were suspended after staging a sit-in. On 22 January there was an anti-war strike at School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Students there organised against intimidatory security measures and racism against Arab students. One Egyptian student told of how "On the tube a guy looked at me and said 'Iraqi bastard'. And you get 'bloody Arab'".

Dockers and seafarers were often at the forefront of action, perhaps not surprisingly given the key role of ships in moving troops and supplies to the Gulf. The departure of French ground forces for Saudi Arabia was delayed when seafarers on a car-ferry requisitioned to carry troops demanded danger money before agreeing to sail. The ferry left Corsica after this dispute was resolved, but it was held up for another 12 hours on 21 September on the dockside at Toulon, by workers opposed to the war. In February, dockers in Marseilles refused to load containers full of military materials destined for the Gulf.

In Japan, the shipment of supplies to US troops was delayed when seafarers refused to leave port without an additional 30% on base salaries to compensate for the military nature of the voyage. Spanish seafarers stopped a passenger ship from sailing to pick up French troops and take them to the Gulf; they refused to let it sail unless its crew had volunteered and were getting increased wages for sailing into a danger zone. The Spanish government had chartered the ship as part of its support for the war.

Yeah fuck the million and a half people that died, they definitely don't deserve a couple hours of people's time.

Discugusting and vile.