August 2, 2020

When Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990

 By Zafarul Islam Malik

Not many residents of Kuwait even considered that there might be a start of hostilities between Kuwait and Iraq for whatever cause. It was unthinkable for many reasons, the strongest among them was the fact that a Muslim state does not fight with another Muslim state – that at least was the belief. Why a majority of people living in Kuwait believed in this myth was a mystery since Iraq had been locked in a bitter war with Iran for years. That war had only recently been concluded.

The fact was that in the very early hours of August 02, 1990 a contingent of Iraqi forces crossed the border into Kuwait shooting and destroying everything in sight. No one knew why. At least none of us foreigners understood the reason for that level of wanton aggression. A large number of us foreigners working in Kuwait and living away from the border even got dressed for work (since it was a working day) and drove off to our offices as usual not realizing that this was to be a historic day, in the history of Kuwait and indeed in their own lives.

My day began with the usual rituals but when I was on the point of dressing up to go to the office I received an unexpected phone call from a colleague of mine who succinctly told me in stark words that Kuwait had been overrun by the Iraqis.

Questions came flooding through my mind, the important one being, “Why, after all did Iraq have to launch an invasion against a tiny neighbouring country, when they probably have more oil wealth than Kuwait, and when there was no real dispute between the two countries to speak of?” I did not have any answer to those questions. Kuwait had in fact supported Iraq in another needless and wasteful war that Iraq waged against Iran. Why now conquer Kuwait? By some estimates the total population of Kuwait comprised two-thirds foreigners and only one-third Kuwaitis. A large majority of foreigners could be classified as wage-earners who had their roots in a vast majority of countries spreading from Australia to Alaska. Therefore, by crossing the border and entering Kuwait Saddam had effectively distanced Iraq from a large majority of countries, whose nationals were now adversely affected.

By mid-afternoon on August 02, 1990 signs of the invasion were to be seen everywhere in the country. Kuwait’s broadcast system was the first to have been taken over, but now also on public roads there was no sign of Kuwait’s traffic police. Kuwait government, it seemed, had dissolved. The one good thing was that the communication services, mainly the telecommunication services still worked, although international lines had been disconnected within hours of the invasion.

Wars traditionally are fought primarily for very few reasons, for financial, territorial gain or for the spread of influence. Incidences where wars have been waged for principles are few.  It was therefore a bit of an enigma for us to explain why this particular invasion had taken place. There was no reason for Iraq to annex Kuwait in an effort to increase its area and it already had that same valuable natural resource as Kuwait – oil. There was also no question of any principles of any sort being violated on either side.  Additionally, it was clear for all of us to see that the sixty per cent of Kuwait’s total population which was suffering as a result of that invasion were the foreign workers who were living in Kuwait mainly to earn their bread and butter. If there was a group that was observed as not so badly affected by this unreasonable turn of events, it was the Palestinian group. We observed that they were not treated as crudely as the rest of us foreigners by the Iraqi soldiers who were as rude and inhuman as possible with the rest of us. In return many of the Palestinians did not look upon the Iraqi hostilities and invasion as being close to a breach of any law. In some instances they even provided whatever facilities they could to the unruly and undisciplined Iraqi soldiers who roamed the streets of Kuwait quite aimlessly in a vulgar display of power.

A week into these inhuman conditions most of us began to take stock of the situation. A breakdown of the cleaning systems in the city also meant that we began to witness huge piles of rubbish on most street corners. We began to hear of patients in hospitals lying either without medicines or even without the care of doctors and nurses. With so many Iraqi soldiers roaming menacingly on the streets of Kuwait we felt threatened and afraid for our lives. It came as no surprise to us that many doctors and nurses did not report for duty. There was a complete breakdown of law in the country and no one seemed to have any rights. Medicines, even life-saving medicines, were in short supply mainly because Kuwait’s sea and airport were at a standstill. Almost all of the distributors of medicines had locked up their offices and their distribution networks.

It was rumoured that although foreign nationals may be allowed to leave the country by road, Kuwaitis would not be permitted to exit Kuwait. However, here again a strange ‘Iraqi-brand’ of logic was applied. If common sense had prevailed among the upper echelons of Iraqi leadership, they would have permitted foreigners to exit Kuwait from whichever border they chose. After all the underlying idea was to get rid of the foreigners and to keep the Kuwaiti nationals hemmed in. However, common sense, or even horse-sense it seemed was in critically short supply in Iraq. The authorities would open some borders (to Iran, for instance) but kept some others tightly closed! Foreigners were left to the whims and fancies of the Iraqi faceless ‘gods’ who made those rules. No one knew why, no one could explain why they thought on those lines. To many of us it seemed like the creations of sadistic minds, no less. The result was that foreigners with their fast dwindling resources drove in their vehicles from one border to another trying to see if those other borders were open. Many in search of an “open” border drove from Iranian borders to the Jordanian border.

After reaching the border many of those attempting to cross over out of Iraq found that their lives had been reduced to the level of scavengers. Many of them did not even have water to drink, leave alone having food to eat, or some milk for the babies and infants. When asked, the Iraqis on patrol along their side of the border simply remarked, “You are now experiencing what we have been living through for several years during our war with Iran. We know what you are going through, but we cannot help.” In short, they wanted all of the foreigners at their mercy to have a taste of their suffering under their dictator Saddam.

It mattered little to the dictator Saddam how the world viewed his hostilities against a tiny, harmless country. No one knew what score he had to settle or what good his hostilities would mean to the Arabs or even to the Iraqis themselves. In hindsight it appears that having taken the first step of annexing Kuwait Saddam did not have a plan to follow through with. The next possible step that Saddam even considered for a while was to enter Saudi Arabia in a bid to bring that country under his control as well, but that was rudely put a stop to by the forces that be. Perhaps he saw too many ferocious eyes glaring down at him. Who knew?

Perhaps, by then Saddam had served his purpose for which he was brought into power! There were growing internal troubles in Iraq and by early 1991 Saddam knew that his days were numbered.

Zafarul Islam Malik is Lahore, Pakistan-based writer. He is the author of Kuwait War 1990 & Its Aftermath.
 

 The Journal of America Team:

 Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali

Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott

Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
 

 

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