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Tuesday, July 14, 2020

The Peace on The Horizon - 70 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (40)



Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)

5-4(40) Revenge and counter-revenge

Iraq turned the whole world into an enemy by invasion into Kuwait. But strictly speaking, at the Arab summit held immediately after the invasion, Jordan supported Iraq. President Saddam Hussein used so-called linkage theory and justified his policy, saying that It was contradictory to condemn the Iraq’s merge of Kuwait while accepting the Israel’s merge of Palestine. Hussain’s logic attracted the sympathy of Arab countries. In addition, Jordan, a poor and small country, had been supplied oil from Iraq at a lower price than international market. King Hussein of Jordan could not resist to Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

Cunning President Hussein launched missile attacks on Israel 18 times. He explained that it was a retaliation against the bombing of Osirak nuclear power plant in Iraq by Israel during the Iran-Iraq war. This attack was called Operation Opera, Saddam Hussein’s tactics was to draw Israel into the war. Israel who did not hesitate first strike for self-defense purpose could not keep quite on Iraqi missile attack. Israeli public opinion was focused into a war against Iraq.

That was just as Hussein expected. Once Israel participated in the war, it was the reproduction of the past Middle East wars. Iraq's unilateral invasion to Kuwait would be transformed into an Arab-Islam versus Jewish war. In Iraq War Saudi Arabia accepted the ground operation by multinational forces mainly composed by Western Christian countries headed by the United States. Saudi Arabia faced in criticism by both domestic and foreign Islamic religious groups. Gulf monarchy countries might be in a bitter situation if Israel had participated in the war.

The US persuaded Israel hard and made Israel to abandon the counterattack. If Israel participated in the war (although the word "if" was prohibited in the history), Hussein regime would definitely have collapsed taking into consideration of Israel's strategy which did not stop fighting until enemy's death. As a result, the Middle East would be in a great chaos. However, the United States at that time had to keep Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab oil-producing countries in its ally. The US did not want to have more enemies in addition to Iran.

Palestinians in the occupied territory of Israel or Palestine refugees living in Jordan welcomed Iraqi missile attacks against Israel. Whenever leaders in Arab countries addressed to the people, they used to say that Israel should be exerted into the Mediterranean. But there had been no leader who took real action except Hussein of Iraq. It was natural for Palestinians to be obsessed by the illusion that Hussein might truly realize their dreams. They shouted their support for Hussein loudly and blew steam off.

Palestinians in Kuwait shouted pleasantly in their hearts even though they could not raise their voice. Palestinians came to Kuwait looking for jobs. They had to obey to Kuwaitis like slaves even if Kuwaitis were lazy and arrogant. When the Iraqi army invaded to Kuwait, Kuwaitis escaped into Saudi Arabia in flurry. Palestinians mocked them and felt self-satisfaction. When Palestinians recognized that Iraq attacked Israel by missile but Israel could not fight back by the objection of the United States, Palestinians expected that Hussein would regain their homeland.

Both Hussein 's ambitions and the Palestinians' expectations, however, were illusion. Six months later, Kuwait was liberalized by the Gulf War. Prior to withdrawal, Iraq set fire on the oilfield in Kuwait as a fallout. A bright red flame rose in the sky of Kuwait and a black splash of crude oil scatters in the desert. The sky above Kuwait was surrounded by black smoke and the darkness spread over the land even in daytime.

The Emir of Kuwait and his royal families returned home from Saudi Arabia where the government was in exile. Kuwait regained tranquility. They deeply appreciated the countries joined to the multinational forces to liberate Kuwait including the United States. Kuwait government, therefore, published special advertisement on the newspaper expressing their thanks. In the article there were names of countries which participated in multinational military forces such as Pakistan or Sudan. But there was no name of Japan even it donated a huge war chest of 1 trillion yen. Japanese constitution prohibited to send military force abroad.

Kuwait did not allow those who supported Hussein regime. The government deported all Palestinians and Jordanians. The Japanese oil company in the south of the border was also ordered to deport its Palestine and Jordanian employees because Kuwait held half equity for oil operation. It was a tit for tat by Kuwait after the Gulf War against the blowing steam by Palestinians during the war. But it was obvious that what would happen. Both public and private sectors in Kuwait had been supported by the deported Palestinians. The economic damage that Kuwait received were quite serious. It still does not heal after a quarter century.

(To be continued ----)

By Areha Kazuya


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