Posted on 09/01/2002 5:43:08 PM PDT by Ranger
Kuwait became the first Arab state yesterday to signal support for a US-led military coalition against Iraq, in marked contrast to the caution shown by other countries in the region.
The Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Salem al-Sabah, told The Telegraph: "While Saddam Hussein continues to keep Kuwaiti prisoners of war, and continues to televise threats against Kuwait, we consider the war against Iraq to have never ended."
The sheikh's comments serve as encouragement for a Washington administration struggling to convince the international community of the need for military action.
Saudi Arabia, which America used as a base during the 1991 Gulf War to drive Iraqi invaders from Kuwait, has so far refused to open its territory to American forces for a new war against Baghdad.
A Kuwaiti government official said: "If America asks for support Kuwait will give it. I expect the same response from all Gulf states. There may be the need publicly to be anti-war, but under-the-table deals are being struck."
Twelve years after the Iraqis invaded, Kuwait again looks like a prosperous Gulf emirate, but the trauma caused by the seven-month occupation remains, and with it the growing sense that the only way to achieve regional stability is through military action to remove the Saddam regime.
A spokesman for the deputy prime minister's office said: "The Kuwaiti people are tired of living under the constant threat of aggression from Iraq.
"Those people who say that sending weapons inspectors into Iraq may be a solution to the current crisis are not those who are living within reach of his missiles and his chemical weapons. How can we feel safe with Saddam Hussein next door?"
Dr Masaad Shlash, of the department of sociology at Kuwait University, a prisoner in Iraq after the invasion, said: "Look at Saddam's treatment of his own people. He's the closest thing the Middle East has to Hitler."
Stick-slip properties? I think you are referring to the shear stress limit. The sarcasm is intended. The only way sand can "hold up" is against a impact along the normal plane of sand face. IOW, there is resistance in a direct frontal assault. However, if one carefully pushes sand aside, it is easily pliable. IOW, there is really no "sand coalition", only a loosely associatiated pile of worthless matter. Enough already.
I was wondering about that. P.J. O'Rourke, in his book "Give War a Chance", writes about being in Kuwait City the night after it was liberated. He interviewed many Kuwaitis, and all had some horror story to tell about what happened to a relative. The Iraqis liked torture, they'd use electric drills, hot irons, battery clips attatched to genitals, etc. They looted, raped, you name it. The Kuwaitis were not amused and they were very pro-American when they were rescued.
IMO, instead of openly opposing "Islamic weirdos" (and thereby confirming suspicions Muslims already have about us) we should be looking to install a new generation of "Islamic" leaders that are more moderate. It is possible, since there are multiple schools of Islamic thought, with some moderate and some quite liberal. The Sufi school of thought (originated either in Persia or what is now Pakistan-India) is a prime candidate for something we could be encouraging at the cost of Wahabbism.
I don't have any idea how much influence clerics have in Iraq, but it doesn't seem like it's much. That's good news.
The Bush Administration has had a long time to think about this, and they may already have a pretty good idea who might make a good "interim" President of Iraq until a democratic republic can be established. I hope so.
Saudi Arabia has to be quaking in their boots at the thought of a secular democracy taking root next door in Iraq. It is absolutely a threat to the continued existence of the royal family, and it goes a very long way in explaining why the Saudis aren't backing us in this war.
With a relatively Westernized bureacracy - by Arab standards, at least. Certainly a nation we'd want to preserve (sans Saddam), I agree. However, my post was directed at your (and so many other Westerners) statement that there's merit in keeping away Islamic weirdos. Instead of keeping them out of the cage, we oughta be concentrating (via our Arab proxies of course) on dividing them by magnifying the very real differences between the various schools of thought. Sufism dominated the Islamic world at one point in time (a relatively peaceful period, coincidentally) and if it was possible then it's possible now.
Indeed.
While I believe the time has not yet become ripe for this war, it is coming, and two things seem uppermost in my mind. 1) there is tremendous opposition (natural and spiritual) from the forces which side with Saddam, and those afflicted with Chamberlainitis, to permit the war; 2) it has been good for the eventual cause that some nations are holding back at this time, since it has not yet been time to proceed.
But the blockade on action needs to be lifted when it is time, and the statements from Kuwait seem just right in their timing and purpose.
They don't want land. Just a blind eye turned to directional drilling that taps Iraq's oil from wells drilled on Kuwait's side of the border. Reportedly this was one of the main reasons Saddam invaded.
-ccm
"...WE CONSIDER THE WAR AGAINST IRAQ TO HAVE NEVER ENDED."
Way to go Kuwait!! Give 'em the southern no fly zone as a reward for having the guts to come out openly and say this. Bye bye Saddam!
I went there 3 times when I was on the USS Nimitz. The place has it's contrasts. Wide open desert, nice hotels where we drank lots of beer, nasty streets in the Souks, and smelly people wearing robes. I didn't like it at all.
Especially after Mt. Pinatubo blasted Clark AB & Subic NS with tons of volcanic ash. It made the decision to leave the Philippines pretty easy.
If they find they cannot defeat the diabolical muslim threat within, they will want our military back. Pragmatism.
I'd speculate along these lines:
U.S. "We are doing it, alone or with supporters. Afterwards, it will be better to have been a (public) supporter."
Kuwait: "We will be a (public) supporter."
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