For thousands of Kuwaiti families, and many times more Iraqi families, this week is a week of pain and sad memories, with the anniversary of Saddam’s invasion and occupation of our beloved country on August 2, 1990.
Thirty-four years have passed since the most stupid invasion of one country by another, let alone the fact that the aggressor is the older sister of the victim.
This happened without a logical justification, and the results were catastrophic for Iraq and its people, as the material losses exceeded tens of billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of civilians and many times that number of military personnel lost their lives in that absurd war, the largest in the history of the region.
The worst of all is that no party knows, or even cared to know, the number of Iraqi dead, in an act that represents the height of contempt for the human spirit, and evidence that, in dictatorships and oppressive regimes, man has no meaning and no existence… and ‘Oh, how sweet is victory with God’s help’!
Saddam’s mistake in invading Kuwait was fatal, and he, his people and his family paid a very high price for it. It made the fate and future of Iraq ambiguous and tragic for many years to come, after it brought it to the peak of despair and financial, intellectual and national bankruptcy, with the death of the idea of Arab nationalism and the crushing of the slogan ‘One Arab nation with an eternal message’, all of whose leaders and founders died without telling us about the content of that message!
It was not shocking to read what was mentioned in the memoirs of the late Dr. Ahmed Al-Khatib, that he understood from his meetings with the late venerable Amir Abdullah Al-Salem, on more than one occasion, that he did not like Kuwait to have any relationship, whether water, financial or economic, with Iraq, because he was not confident in the intentions of those who took over the reins of power there, whether during the royal era, or after Qasim’s bloody coup, and those who came after him.
But it seems that our fate dictates that we live with a stable and secure Iraq, and it does not seem that this will be achieved in the foreseeable future, as we hope, and as every loyal Iraqi wishes.
Nizar Hamdoun, 1944-2003, who held sensitive positions in Saddam’s administration after whose term as ambassador to Washington has ended, says in his memoirs that despite his Baathist and nationalist background and his belief in unity, the use of force and the forced annexation of Kuwait to Iraq was a big mistake.
Iraq’s treatment of Kuwait was also brutal, as many Kuwaitis who refused to cooperate with the occupier were executed, especially the Baathists such as Faisal Al-Sanea and others, for opposing the occupation and refusing to hold any ministerial positions.
He said that Saddam’s criminals, such as Hussein Kamel, Sabawi Ibrahim, and Ali Hassan Al-Majid, wreaked havoc and stole everything they could lay their hands on in Kuwait, and committed massacres in a city that was supposed to be the 19th Iraqi province. So how could the owner of a house steal his own house?
Hamdoun asks in disapproval: Are the “organized looting,” mostly governmental, and the killing of innocent people consistent with the idea that Kuwait is part of Iraq? How can we justify these criminals stealing even traffic lights?
He said that the so-called “Arab solution” to the situation was just a cover to buy time, in order to consecrate the invasion, and for Iraq to remain in Kuwait forever.
There was no Arab solution, and the entire Iraqi leadership was busy absorbing all of Kuwait’s possessions in a barbaric and hideous manner!
And that all the countries that called for an Arab solution, namely Libya, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, and Tunisia, were either unaware of Saddam’s actual intentions, or took their positions for reasons of their own. If Iraq was interested in an Arab solution, it would not have entered Kuwait City in the first place!
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By Ahmed alsarraf
