The Reclamation Of The Lost Province : The Second Invasion Of Kuwait (Peace Movement Chapter 6)

Peace Movement : Chapter 5

The Reclamation Of The Lost Province : The Second Invasion Of Kuwait

The second invasion of Kuwait took place many years after the first. Like the first no one really expected the Dictator to have been so reckless, or to move at that time. In theory international weapons inspectors had been monitoring the factories and weapon production capabilities in the Dictator’s state, although they had been continually been toyed with and presumably ridiculed in private, or away from the rest of the world’s cameras, by the Dictator himself.

Only once since the first invasion had the western leaders briefly considered a policy of real military threat to the Dictator’s regime which might have prevented the nuclear, long range warhead and bacterialogical programmes from being actively developed. At that time few of the western powers had wanted to pick another argument with the Dictator. Collectively they had felt that more peaceful methods of persuasion and weapons monitoring programmes should be continued, and that it would be very difficult for the regime to ever catch up again with the military superiority of the west.

In the United States a hawkish President, who had failed to carry enough of the world with him, had decided, under the pressure of local populists and foreign diplomats alike, to leave the middle east to its own business and pursue a traditionally attractive policy of isolationism.

In Britain a combative idealistic Prime Minister was soon replaced, by popular demand, by another, even more idealistic Prime Minister, who nonetheless believed that there were very few issues in this world which were actually worth the shedding of any British soldiers’ blood. Indeed he had as much as hinted on many occasions that he would far rather turn British troops against the tyranny of neo imperialist arch capitalist America than tread upon the sovereignty of unelected middle eastern dictators or Balkan nationalists, whether they had committed acts of so called genocide, or ethnic cleansing, and copious amounts of political repression or not. The new British Prime minister was none other than Anthony himself, who saw himself as the catalyst for true understanding and moderation to flow between all nations, and for the people and workers of every nation to join hands in liberation from competition and caste.

No one stopped the Dictator now because he finally had nuclear weapons. The Dictator announced to the world’s media, wearing his green military uniform, his possession of these weapons of ‘great power’.

“Our new weapons,” he outlined in measured and rational sounding tones, “are capable of bringing justice and punishment to the evil exploiters of the world if they choose to intervene in the internal affairs of the Arab nation and of the muslim peoples of the world.” The great western powers US, Britain and even France now amassed forces in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other gulf states, too late to prevent the Dictator’s reclamation of his ‘Lost Province’.

The Dictator also announced his army had large quantities of chemical warheads which could be used to purge the Jewish occupiers from the illegal territories they had occupied in the 1920’s,1930’s, 1940’s and ever since. In his speech he made no mention of territories legitimately occupied or sanctioned by the United Nations in the initial partitions of Palestine. It was as if they had no rights to any of the lands of Palestine, even though many, or their direct ancestors, had lived there for many decades. He threatened to release some of this over Tel Aviv if the Israeli occupiers would not accede to his demands, which would be outlined soon. The Israeli government, and United States, who continued in particular to watch the affairs of the region closely, were well aware that these threats, if carried out, could kill millions. It seemed however, thankfully to the Israelis, that the Dictator intended to deal with Kuwait, which he termed ‘The Lost Province’, first. That appeared to be a higher priority to the Dictator, probably because of the large resources of oil which could be ‘safeguarded for the Arab Nation’ if he possessed this region. Oil was surely more important to the self proclaimed leader of the Arab Nation than securing Palestine and allowing the refugees of 1948/9 and 1967 to return to their homes.

The prospect of total war loomed, but many cautioned the governments against responding because further strikes were threatened and Iraq now had the technology to fight. Peace talks were called under the diplomatic leadership of France, but these got nowhere as the Dictator grew in confidence and demands.