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The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship

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The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship By Dr. John Duke Anthony THE 1990-1991 KUWAIT CRISIS REMEMBERED: PROFILES IN STATESMANSHIP By Dr. John Duke Anthony For the last twenty-seven years, today has marked aftermath of the conflict its main cause celebre the anniversary of an infamous event: Iraq’s brutal – continues to remain incomplete. The reason is invasion and subsequent occupation of Kuwait, not for lack of effort. After Kuwait’s liberation, an which began on August 2, 1990, and which was informal and unofficial effort was mounted by brought to an end on February 28, 1991. The George Washington University’s Elliott School of regional and international effects of numerous International Affairs to provide an estimate of the aspects of the trauma then inflicted upon Kuwait MIAs’ status. remain ongoing. Like Kuwait itself, the world, even now, has yet to fully recover. The focus group included diplomats, scholars, media representatives, American armed forces’ Over a quarter century later, important postwar civil affairs personnel, and other individuals facets of what Iraq did to Kuwait fall short who fought to liberate Kuwait. Their unscientific of definitive closure. And they defy effective consensus reported that more than 400 of the description. The international legal requirement missing Kuwaitis died after they were captured. that an aggressor provide prompt, adequate, and The fate of more than 200 of the missing, however, effective compensation for a war’s victims was was unknown. not honored at the end of hostilities. Despite continuing United Nations-supervised efforts to That possibly countless others remain missing collect on this inhumane debt, what is due has still is no small matter. The numbers in question, to not been paid. some, may seem few. Not so, however, for those among the loved ones who tear up at the thought of them. Not so either for those who, despite the The Missing in Action and absence of grounds to warrant optimism for a Context fortuitous ending to their pining, and continue to wait and pray for their return. A full accounting of Kuwait’s and other countries’ missing citizens swept up and carted off to Iraq We Americans would do well to stop and think in the war’s waning hours – in the immediate about this for a moment. We are often criticized, Cover photo: National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Founding President and CEO Dr. John Duke Anthony was one of the first American civilians into Kuwait following its liberation. He would return there twelve times over following year with delegations of American leaders tasked with assisting in one or more facets of the war-torn country’s reconstruction. He is here with his escort observing one among over 650 of Kuwait’s oil wells set ablaze by the retreating Iraqi armed forces. Photo: National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Dr. John Duke Anthony — The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship and rightly so, for having an empathy deficit when when the U.S. population was 270 million. The it comes to understanding the suffering of people analogical equivalent is stunning. It would be in other countries and situations. An irony in this as though 270,000 Americans suddenly went needs to be understood and underscored. The missing. It would be as though they were forcibly irony is that many in the United States demand carted across the border to Canada or Mexico and that people in other countries understand us. For to this day remain missing and unaccounted for. those in front of an American Consular Officer with ticket in hand to visit a friend or relative in Or, take France and Great Britain. France’s and Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, or wherever, but who Great Britain’s populations were each roughly 50 lack such empathy along with the understanding million then. Hence, it is the same as if 50,000 and civility that comes with it, they need to be French or British citizens had been taken prisoner wished good luck in obtaining a visa to the United by an invading army. If this does not place the States. Kuwaiti predicament in perspective, it is hard to imagine what would. Equivalencies and Empathy Ponder this: most Kuwaitis of my acquaintance know no fewer than four of those missing. Never A reality in these regards is humbling: the number since have they seen or heard from or about any of of Kuwaitis and others missing in the 1990-1991 them. In addition, the same number are also aware conflict was a tenth of a percent of the country’s of at least forty of their friends and relativeswho population. Compare that to what would have still carry deep emotional scars as a result of the been the number of Americans missing then, disappearance of their loved ones. In the immediate hours and early days following Kuwait’s liberation, when none of the country’s electric power, desalination water purification plants, and far more of the country’s infrastructure were left operative, and domestic security prospects had been rendered uncertain, armed personnel carriers and mounted automatic weaponry units were omnipresent in the country. Photo: Dr. John Duke Anthony. Page 2 Dr. John Duke Anthony — The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship The site of a February 24, 1991 battle between a group of Kuwaiti freedom fighters known as the Al-Massilah group and Iraqi troops is now home to the Al-Qurain Martyr’s Museum, a memorial for those lost during the Iraqi occupation. Photo: Dr. John Duke Anthony. Whether viewed in the here and now or in the costs, however, were of another nature, intensity, rearview mirror, the costs and losses of the and extent. invasion and occupation of Kuwait remain beyond the imagination. The consequences in terms of As with the tragedy inflicted upon Kuwait, the health and human life, in terms of jobs, in terms American public may never come to grips with of aspirations trampled, in terms of mental and these costs either. One small insight, albeit but material wellbeing among the invaded, may never a snapshot, into the altogether different human be fully known. harm levied by the “liberator” is encapsulated by the following. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked in a 1996 television interview Imponderables whether she thought the reported deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children from the Also unknown are other costs. These include U.S.-led economic sanctions imposed after Iraq’s those incurred by the citizenry in the land of the Kuwait invasion were acceptable to achieve U.S. invader. The moral and material impact of the policy objectives. Her response was, “Yes, …the invasion and the ensuing sanctions there were price is worth it.” This monumentally callous also astronomical. The consequences of those remark continues to haunt the secretary’s image and that of the U.S. government to this day. Page 3 Dr. John Duke Anthony — The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship But there is more. The physical damage and the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force psychological devastation inflicted upon the was upheld. Not only did Kuwait’s citizenry and Kuwaiti people was and is one thing. The ensuing other inhabitants regain their safety and freedom. costs to the citizens of Iraq – to the country’s With this came something else: their dignity, widows, to its orphans, and to innumerable other which had been lost, was restored. civilians who had nothing whatsoever to do with the war – were and are quite another. Even now, In the process were still other achievements. For economists’ conservative estimates place the one, Kuwait’s national sovereignty, which had extent of the damage in the hundreds of billions of been stolen, was returned. Additionally, Kuwait’s dollars. Such conclusions look like typographical political independence – which had been smashed to errors. Would that they were. smithereens by the Iraqi invasion and occupation – was regained. What Was Achieved Something else happened as well. The territorial integrity of this small and defenseless country, Against any further measurement of the human which Iraq violated, was restored. These three devastation visited upon Kuwait, there would characteristics are noted herein for a reason: for arguably be the following additional calculations. the entire post-Second World War period, this Among them would be those that occurred triad of attributes had a sacrosanct dimension to as the crisis unfolded. Here, the focus is not it. only on the humanistic and moral fronts that embraced considerations which were ever present The physical damage and the psychological from beginning to end. The focus is also on what devastation inflicted upon the Kuwaiti occurred in the GCC-U.S. people was and is one thing. The ensuing geopolitical, defense, and economic relationships. costs to the citizens of Iraq – to the country’s Analyzing these dynamics widows, to its orphans, and to innumerable requires donning a other civilians who had nothing whatsoever different set of lenses. In no other way can one to do with the war – were and are quite reach an insightful level another. Even now, economists’ conservative of understanding of how, for instance, international estimates place the extent of the damage law effectively came into play. Indeed, for one of in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Such the first and last times in conclusions look like typographical errors. the past half century, the United Nations’ Charter’s Would that they were. Page 4 Dr. John Duke Anthony — The 1990-1991 Kuwait Crisis Remembered: Profiles in Statesmanship (Left) U.S. Desert Shield and Desert Storm Armed Forces Coalition Commander General H.
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