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| Arabia |
| Kuwait elects itself head cheerleader for U.S. |
| 2003-03-13 |
| Talal Fadal emerged from his neighborhood mosque after evening prayers, tucked his white headgear behind his shoulders and professed his great admiration for the United States. "We wish we could be an American state," Fadal, a Kuwaiti businessman, said Thursday, adding without hesitation that he was "200 percent for the removal of Saddam Hussein." To hear Fadal and dozens of other Kuwaitis talk about a possible war in Iraq is to witness a rare sight in today's fractured world: Support for the United States and its plans in Iraq is so sanguine among most Kuwaitis it borders on the unequivocal. It's only coincidence that those countries that the U.S. helped liberate most recently are the ones who like us. Give them 50 years, and we'll be infidels again, but it's nice while it lasts... As Kuwait prepares to serve as the staging ground for what is thought of in most of the world as a deeply controversial war, its citizens are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a post-Saddam Iraq and openly praising Washington's vision to turn Iraq into a model for democracy in the Middle East, a goal often described in Europe as quixotic at best. The lefties spent a lot of time in the first Gulf War hollering that the Kuwaitis were "just as bad as the Iraqis," which simply wasn't a true statement. They're anything but a democracy, but they're a benevolent monarchy, edging toward a participatory government. At the time of the Iraqi invasion they had the highest per-capita income in the world, with about half their income from overseas investments rather than from oil. Unlike the Soddies, they haven't pissed it all away on jihad. Kuwaitis say there is no mainstream political debate over whether or not war against Saddam is just. "It's not an issue," said Shamlan Essa, a professor of political science at Kuwait University. "Kuwait is the only country in the world today that supports America regardless of what their interests may or may not be." Behind this unwavering support, analysts say, is a mixture of gratitude toward the United States for leading the liberation of Kuwait 12 years ago, a hatred for Saddam Hussein, and the fact that many Kuwaitis were educated in the United States and lived there for years. In addition, Kuwaiti companies are well placed to grab business opportunities in a post-Saddam Iraq. See what I mean? Friends are people with whom you have something in common... "If it wasn't for the United States and Britain, we would still be occupied by Iraq today," said Fawzi Sultan, the head of a government committee on economic reform, expressing a frequently heard sentiment. Asked about a possible war in Iraq, Sultan said, "Without hesitation, I think Bush is right." To be sure, Kuwait is not free from anti-American feelings, especially among conservative Islamic groups. Islamic radicals are blamed for the January killing of one American citizen here and the wounding of at least two soldiers in shootings last year. If we have nutters living in Buffalo, we shouldn't be surprised that there are nutters living in Kuwait. Binny's spokesman, Sully, used to be a Kuwaiti until he was stripped of his citizenship. What's important is how they deal with them... But anti-American gestures are so unpopular in the country these days that fundamentalist groups vying for support in upcoming elections have studiously avoided public criticism of the United States. Last week, Hakem Mutairi, a spokesman for one of Kuwait's leading fundamentalist groups, Al Salafiya, denied a report published in an Arabic-language newspaper that quoted him as saying, "If the public feels that we are living under an imperialistic America, it is given the right to resist imperialism." The comment might not have raised eyebrows if spoken in Paris or London. But Mutairi disavowed the words in a fax to the newspaper the next day, saying he had been "erroneously quoted." "Even the Islamic fundamentalists are trying to keep quiet as far as America is concerned," said Essa. It wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in Paris because the Wehrmacht has been gone for, oh, going on 60 years. Except for the kiddies, everyone in Kuwait can remember the joys of being Iraq's 19th province. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 I know what you mean. But in the case of Kuwait it's undisputably disingenous if they are anti-American. It has to be. We didn't take their oil, we didn't annex them. We didn't kill them. We freed them and that was it. So whatever they feel for us they know personally is wrong beyond the shadow of a doubt. |
| Posted by: g wiz 2003-03-13 23:02:21 |
| #1 One never knows what to make of these professions of friendship. After 9/11, I heard that many Kuwaitis were naming their sons "Osama", because he had humbled the Great Satan. I also heard that the Kuwaitis were indignant on behalf of their Palestinian brethren, 300,000 of whom they tossed out of Kuwait after Gulf War v1.0. It's not impossible for one or the other group to be a small but vocal minority, I suppose, but I was definitely given to understand that the pro-Americans were in the real minority. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-03-13 21:41:15 |