Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(December 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Relative background information: Kuwait.
A long time before the Bush family appeared upon the
Kuwait scene in their quest to protect American oil
interests, they were preceded by Great Britain. Ninety
odd years prior to Gulf War One, (when the United States
accompanied by a small international force declared
war on Iraq in order to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait),
the military of Great Britain were very active in the
area of the Persian Gulf.
In the late nineteenth century
the British, in order to protect transportation trade
routes to India, established a close relationship with
the people of the area, which at that time was part
of the Ottoman Empire. They formed a close relationship
with local rulers who wished to assert autonomy from
the Ottoman Empire and in 1899 Mubarak al-Sabah,, then
ruler of Kuwait, signed an agreement with Britain making
Kuwait a protectorate of the British Empire.
 Oil was
discovered in Kuwait in the late 1930s, but it was
not until after World War Two that Kuwait began to
export large quantities of the liquid gold.
In 1961
Britain granted Kuwait independence against claims
by Iraq that Kuwait was part of their country.
In
the 1960s thru the 1970s, Kuwait strongly supported Arab
nationalism and Palestinian claims to a homeland.
In 1980 when war broke out between Iraq and Iran, Kuwait
supported Iraq.
In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing
more than $2Billion in oil revenue from contested oil reserves
which straddle both countries.
In early 1991 Iraq invaded
Kuwait and an international force, (mainly American),
evicted Iraqi forces after six weeks of fighting,
which decimated the Iraqi army and destroyed its military
equipment but left Saddam Hussein's brutal regime
in power.
 Kuwait has a population of around two million
people, with approximately 45% of the population
being native Kuwaitis, and the remainder, for the most
part, being foreign workers. Kuwait became a very prosperous
country founded on oil reserves, (which is one tenth
of the world's output), and offers its people, amongst
other benefits, free medical health care and educational
opportunities which have yielded a literacy rate of
around 79% - so to sum up, they are far more advanced
in both the fields of health care and education than
the otherwise affluent and powerful United States.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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