Listen to the Kuwaitis

National Review Online ^ | 3/11/2002 | Victor Davis Hanson

[IonInsights]

I had come to the same conclusion...

[philosofy123]

"Listening to the Kuwaiti anger you would think that 19 Americans had blown up 3,000 Muslims in Mecca and Medina, along with 20 acres of the downtown, while in the immediate aftermath the American government had lectured the grieving Gulf States about their improper policies concerning Israel — rather than vice versa."

May be that is what we should do, drop a few oversized bombs on Mecca, and tell the angry Moslems to stop harrasing the Jews.

[My Identity]

VDH BUMP BUMP BUMP TO THE TOP!!!

[My Identity]

Not that this surprises me, but the notion that we need
'moslems as coalition partners against islamic militants'
is shown above as wishful thinking and so much PC krappola.

GREAT article, by the way, with many insights and clear points!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Nuke Kuwait.

[sheik yerbouty]

An article with insight!

[Tolik]

"Ingratitude and hypocrisy" excerpts from the article above:

Second, a common theme of the Kuwaiti displeasure toward us is apparently the murderous Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We can put aside all the thorny issues involving the West Bank and focus on just one event. In 1990 Mr. Arafat, with apparent support from the Palestinian people, and seconded by the monarchy in Jordan, quite vocally backed the Iraqi destruction of Kuwait. As I recall, Arafat was captured on television kissing Mr. Hussein after the latter's dismemberment of Kuwait. In other words, the very peoples that the Kuwaitis now express solidarity with just a few years ago were celebrating their own demise.

Nor should we forget that in turn, upon liberation of Kuwait, many Palestinians were forcibly evicted from the entire sheikdom. So let us pause for a moment and sort out the astounding facts and zany logic of Iraqis kicking out Kuwaitis kicking out Palestinians: (1) we intervened in the Gulf to save the Kuwaiti nation from serfdom; (2) whereas the Palestinians cheered on news that Kuwait was dissolved; (3) and the Kuwaitis now express dislike toward America over our own purported lack of sympathy for the Palestinian people! We give over 100 million dollars a year to Mr. Arafat. We ignore reports that Palestinians were cheering on news of 3,000 murdered Americans. And we welcome Palestinian students to our shores. In contrast, the Kuwaitis once ethnically cleansed their country of Palestinians — and the Kuwaitis now express hatred toward America over our treatment of Palestine!

That is surreal!

 

 

[Red Jones]

bump

[IonInsights]

bttt.

[My Identity]

in general 61% Middle Easterners subscribe to the lunatic view that Arab terrorists were not responsible for the murders of Sept. 11

Since there is not a single democracy or free media in the Arab Middle East, there is no chance of [honest debate]

BTTT

[dennisw]

Their oil wealth just produces more Jihad and more anti USA and anti modern propaganda. Most stupid and spoiled creatures on this planet. 7th century Islam all the way baby!

[My Identity]

the case of Kuwait is an example of ungratefulness of a completely different magnitude - one that puts the French of the late 1940s to shame

Outdoing the shameless French? Now there's a life skill!

[My Identity]

Saving Kuwatis from extinction earned less than a decade's worth of appreciation.

Nothing we do in the future will matter much either.

We should know that the billions that go to Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine to help "moderates" bring not thanks for our largess, but rather contempt for our naiveté.

[JAWs]

GREAT article, by the way, with many insights and clear points!

In other words a typical VDH piece.

[My Identity]

public opinion in Kuwait confirms that the root of anti-Americanism is
- not poverty (they are rich),
- not exploitation (they do not give oil away),
- not past grievance (we saved them),
- not purported solidarity with the Palestinians (whom they ejected),
but a basic sense of umbrage and accompanying envy that grows with greater exposure to the West.

So much for understanding root causes.
Like a deliquent child, I'd say they need some tough love.
(but they may have had too much exposure to that as young boys if reports are to be believed. )

[My Identity]

the solution for our fickle friends in the Gulf is a long overdue accounting with the terrorist autocracy of Iraq and the implementation of consensual government in its place.

We saved Kuwait once from Iraqi fascism and received ingratitude for our efforts.

The next time we should encourage a new and free Iraq to ignite a chain reaction of democratic revolution in the Gulf and let the sheiks deal with reformers who seek not to take their oil, but to oust them altogether.

HA! The ultimate revenge, democracy!

[Kozak]

Outdoing the shameless French? Now there's a life skill!

They even exceeded the French in military prowess setting the new land speed record for being conquered by a neighbor. I wonder if they eat (camel) cheese?

[quietolong]

They send there young off to be educated in US schools. Hmm.

Could this be part of the problem?

Anti-Americanism blamed on college teachers

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies,.....Or... Joe McCarthy was more right than he ever knew

Before we Nuke Kuwait. Maybe we should clean our own yard up first.

[Billthedrill]

It would be far more intellectually honest — and cheaper — simply now to allow them all to be the enemies that they wish to be rather than the friends they do not.

Oh, they don't want to fight - us, or anyone else. One of the most memorable images of the Gulf War (for me) was an interview conducted in a nightclub district in, I believe, Egypt...a convertible full of young Kuwaiti men partying down (illegally drunk, but that's another issue) while our troops were taking fire in their own country. The astonished reporter asked them if they intended to sign up to retake Kuwait, and their reply was a disdainful "no way."

This is not an egalatarian society. A very great deal of money has passed into the hands of a relatively few people, and with that comes (1) a sense of entitlement, (2) a resentment toward the source, and (3) a feeling of superiority undercut by the knowledge that it is unearned. This is not a healthy combination to raise a child in, much less an entire generation.

This is not to say that all Kuwaitis have the spoiled-children syndrome. I met a Kuwaiti A4 pilot who got out before the Iraqi army rolled in, and he had as deep a dedication to duty and country as any American military member. Unfortunately, that sense of obligation seems to be in a minority, but it is unjust not to admit that it exists.