European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 2, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse 011 to w ii ibis a w Ltd. A a a stunned tallies up by Charles j. Hanley the associated Ress a Little More than a year ago on the quiet fringe of Geneva Arab sheiks gathered in a Plush Swiss hotel to shape a new world order for of Luff in a Distant desert 45-ton Battle tanks were rumbling into position awaiting an order of a different kind. The rest of the world unsuspecting was looking elsewhere during those Lazy Days of july 1990 a toward the booming . Stock Market or the bombastic Boris n. Yeltsin or the beaches and Backwoods of vacation season. Then a year ago today lightning struck. The iraqi army invaded Kuwait and stunned the world waking it from a Midsummer dream of peace after a Long cold War. Months of crisis followed. Nations stood United As never before the . Military unleashed its awesome might and in the end an aggressive third world Power was beaten Back. The upheaval in the persian Gulf enhanced America s global role and rejuvenated the United nations. It May even have helped Clear a path toward settling the Arab israeli conflict. But after 12 months of invasion standoff War and cease fire flames still rage in the Gulf and the map remains cluttered with uncertainties. For one Iraq s Saddam Hussein with half his army intact and his nuclear Aims now confirmed continues to hold Down the command Bunker in Baghdad. For another More than 40,000 . Troops still staff positions close to Iraq their homecomings subject to change. For a third Oil aflame and Oil afloat still pose perils in the Gulf. A fourth great uncertainty lies buried in the desert Sands in nameless numberless Graves. The Pentagon reported 148 americans killed in action. But the full human Cost of invasion. Counterattack and civil War May never be known. Iraq has not announced its casualties but outside projections Range from 50,000 to 100,000 to As High As 200,000 iraqi dead along with several thousand kuwaitis. Among All the unknowns after Iraq tried to Swallow its wealthy neighbor Veteran observers sound sure of one thing the crisis and its Climax have not ushered in a new period of stability and Good will in the Mideast. A Quot this new world order putting right to wrong having the lion sleep with the Lamb a that balloon is going to be deflated very quickly a Kamel Abu Jaber of the Jordan Institute for Middle East studies predicted in an interview. The lion turned Loose a year ago was the iraqi army a Republican guard whose tanks took Over Kun wait within hours chasing the nation s Emir Sheik Jaber Al Ahmad Al Jaber Ai Sabah and what Iraq called his Quot despotic corrupt Quot ruling family into exile in saudi Arabia. Their quarrel was rooted in Money a big Money. The iraqis said they lost billions of petrodollars when kuwaiti overproduction drove Down Oil prices. They were embittered too by the Emir a demand for repayment of kuwaiti billions that bankrolled Iraq s War with Iran in the 1980s. Six Days before the invasion at the Geneva meeting. Kuwait had agreed to abide by open quotas. But Iraq was t satisfied. Kuwait s Crown Prince and Saddam s chief lieutenant then met Lor urgent talks in saudi Arabia on tuesday july 31. Early the next morning with nothing resolved the iraqi stormed off. And at 2 . On thursday iraqi t-72 tarts punched South toward Kuwait City. To Rajhan settling Oil accounts the Conquest settled a Long held iraqi territorial claim Over All Kuwait it became Iraq s "19th . _ but iraqi control 210 Days. In a furious six week War an Arab Western Alliance led by a half million . Troops drove the badly mauled iraqis from the tiny emirate. For Kuwait the five months since have been a trying time the retreating iraqis set fire to 650 kuwaiti Oil Wells and More than 400 still Burn spreading a hellish pall hundreds. Of Miles. In the Gulf below vast Oil Spilis from the War s last Days a an estimated 125 million Gallons a have spread Dow the coastline inflicting damage still unt Allied. A mines litter the landscape. Tens of thousands of kuwaitis have not come Home from exile. The devastated Economy lies moribund. A politically the restored kuwaiti oligarchy has embarrassed its allies with its harsh retribution against Quot iraqi collaborators and has disappointed Home grown. Reformers with Only a halfhearted Promise of Distant elections. The sheiks and sultans of other Gulf states seem even less inclined to liberalize their family regimes in Iraq the cornered Saddam declared july 17 that his one party state would soon embrace meanwhile his regrouped army unimpeded by the desert storm allies crushed uprisings by iraqis kurd and shiite. Muslims. That Western inaction looked to some like tacit support for Saddam against secessionists. The state department s former Mideast chief Richard Murphy doubts that is the . Attitude. Quot but our policy has to be to support the integrity of Iraq As it has been created in Post world War i times Quot he told an interviewer. Beyond the Gulf the crisis sent human tides of refugees a perhaps 3 million a flooding across the Middle East As Many As 800,000 yemenis living in saudi Arabia were dispossessed and driven across the Border to Yemen because its government refused to join the anti Iraq coalition. Jordan suffered similarly for supporting Iraq Rand Many there remain bitter. Mohammed Abdul Rahman Khalifa a Leader of Jordan s fundamentalist and politically potent Muslim brotherhood said he told Saddam to his face the Kuwait invasion was wrong. But the american intervention Khalifa said Quot was nothing More than a new crusader War against the Quot one year after aug 2,1990, the Arab world is still deeply divided Quot said a prominent egyptian analyst former Diplomat Tahseen Bashir. Quot Saddam Hussein committed the islamic crime of Fiona deep sedition by splitting the Arab Soui from within Quot Bashir said in an interview Quot. He put us in the position of having to rely on the West to retrieve Kuwait from America can win genuine Arab gratitude Only by leading Israel to the bargaining table he said. The crisis loosened the Arab israeli logjam. Syria a desert storm ally is newly flexible on negotiating approaches. The Palestine liberation organization in disarray because it supported Saddam is fading into the background. And president Bush has announced to Israel that Quot the time has come Quot for peace. But even if the lion does t soon lie with the Lamb the Gulf crisis leaves a Rich legacy for historians a the american superpower for the first time turned to friends to finance its military operations. E Germany and Japan stepped Over a threshold sending military units overseas for the first time since world War ii. A the world accepted a Quot humanitarian deployment Quot of armies to Aid the starving kurd. A the United states strengthened its shield Over saudi Arabia just As the saudis pumping More and More Oil strengthened their hold on the world Economy. Above All the .-soviet partnership made history a by making the United nations work. The . Security Council acted with dazzling swiftness from the aug. 6 Resolution that clamped an embargo on Iraq to the nov. 29 ultimatum giving it six weeks to leave Kuwait. Amp a a. V x a a tar i 1. A w it s Law Gay v.,. I in \ no 1 a a a i. A 0 a a a a Itata. A t 1 y a. A 7 t a a \ a a a a Isar. X Jim. 54skngorge. A 1 1 ,. A amps Ken Georgs on thanksgiving Day 1990, president Bush visited the fearing for their fives tens of thousands of kurd fled Iraq after the War. Hundreds died before reaching refugee Camp where food was provided troops in Dhahran it saudi Arabia. _. A the retreating iraqis set fire to 650 kuwaiti Oil Wells. More than 400 of the Wells still bum. A amps Ken George now the world watches the postwar . Performance will it eliminate iraqis nuclear capability whatever the Cost will it halt nuclear proliferation elsewhere will it rein in conventional arms sales in the Mideast. Other questions look Back not Forward. Quot Why did t anybody do something to prevent this in the first place Quot Veteran . Troubleshooter Brian Urquhart asked speaking of Iraq s resort to arms in a neighbourhood quarrel. A or and other hard questions in Washington look Back still further asking Why the United states quietly supplied support to Iraq in the ale 1980s. Seventy years ago after world War 1, the British convinced president Wilson it was America s destiny to establish a Middle East protectorate. But the would t buy it a too Many entanglements. Now in the age of rapid deployment America sounds ready for a wilsonian destiny. And the Mideast still looks dangerous a place where Quot threats can arise suddenly unpredictably and from unexpected quarters Quot a As Bush pointed out just a year ago today when the startling news first flashed in from the Gulf. . Troops move out across the saudi arabian desert in Early november last year. Page 14 a the stars and stripes Friday August 2, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 15
