When Iraq invaded, occupied and annexed Kuwait, bad things happened. The extent of the rape, imprisonment, torture and summary execution perpetuated by the Iraqis was a political football in the run-up to Kuwait’s American liberation. But there’s no question Kuwaitis suffered unspeakable horrors. While we can debate the efficacy of an armed populace against military troops, you’d think the experience would foster a pretty strong gun culture, a national respect for gun rights. على العكس تماما ! In fact . . .
The National Assembly approved on Wednesday a law organizing the collection of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
According to the law, it would be permissible for police, after proper authorization from the ministry of interior, to search any public location and private or public vehicles if there was cause to believe the existence of unlicensed or unlawful firearms or ammunition.
The law stipulates that anyone possessing unlicensed firearms and ammunition could be jailed for three years and fined KD 3,000. The jail time increases to seven years and the fine to KD 20,000 for anyone who deals (i.e. buying or selling) in unlicensed firearms and ammunition . . .
Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah assured the public that there will be female law enforcement personnel who will search for unlicensed firearms and ammunition inside the homes of Kuwaiti citizens, in the event the latter did not feel comfortable with male ones entering their homes with women inside them.
I don’t feel comfortable with the idea that Americans died to liberate Kuwait from tyranny, only to see tyranny reinstated by the country’s ruling elite. I’m not surprised. But I’m not comfortable, either. [h/t JA]
Not trying to be not picky but OEF/OIF are part of the current war on terror. We liberated Kuwait in 1991 and that was Desert Storm.
Kuwait was liberated when we went to Afghanistan?
Because I don’t remember seeing many Kuwaitis in marjah.
We liberated Kuwait. That does not mean we are allies. But Saddam did not get the increase in money and power he sought, which was a good thing. One would imagine the Kuwaitis would want to be prepared for a repeat performance, but they count on the US to protect the ruling class, screw the peons, let them be raped, robbed, and rendered. Much more serious is the fear that the peons might rise up with arms and demand a piece of the free pie. Did the videos of the loot caravan ever make it out? In Saudi, we participants were treated to videos of the highway from Kuwait to Baghdad littered with vehicles headed back with captured riches when they were destroyed by our attack helicopters, A-10s and assorted other really fun video games, with art, gold, and other riches scattered all over the desert. I never heard, but I’ll bet there were an awful lot of very young women being carried in those vehicles, too.
They carry on business as they did 2500 years ago, tribal conflict and murder, looting and raping your competitors before murdering them, at the behest of your warlord, central government not even a player except to loot the US treasury into the bargain. We should have been there and gone in weeks, a few more weeks in 2003. Think of how much blood and treasure we would have saved, for the same result we have now. And now, methinks we’d be preparing for another sweep of the nation, essentially killing everything that moves, and then leaving behind the promise that we will do it again at the first sign of further insane violence. Y’all wanna do insane violence? Let us show you how. Pretending those stone age jackasses will ever be civilized is a joke.
Right along with you….. Every time I hear about fellow service members that gave up their lives it just pisses me off how people overlook the sacrifices that were made to protect this country from the terrorist organizations that feel america should be destroyed
Closing our borders would do more to protect American than all the “War on Terror” you can dream up.
I’m all for securing America’s borders, particularly with the lack of enforcement going on now. But the British in 1812, Mexican Revolutionaries in 1914’s, and Japan in 1945 were all able to attack American soil back when securing our sovereignty was viewed as a much higher priority then even today.
The Kuwaiti Kops will be searching for illegal guns. Okay, but are there any legal guns in Kuwait? I mean, other than those wielded by servants of the state.
When Saddam’s army left Kuwait, it abandoned a lot of arms, including thousands of full-auto Kalashnikovs. That’s probably the reason for this action, what with the entire Middle East being just lousy with Jihadists.
I remember seeing a Civilian shooting club in Kuwait when I was there in 2008.
I also remember that there were Kuwaiti partisans who fought the Iraqis. I remember a guy telling be about a doctor who ran a blood bank. The Iraqis had invaded the local hospital, but forgot about the blood bank. So he set up a triage center and hospital for wounded partisans in the basement of the blood bank at great personal risk.
One problem with”freeing” people is that they don’t know it’s value. People who fought and bled to throw off a tyrant don’t the put their chains back on. People given their freedom will usually give it to the person who gives the prettiest lies. Then back to the mines.
I don’t know if the Kuwaitis were ever free. Their women sure aren’t. And they have a royal family running things.
When I was in Kuwait two years ago the women were pretty free. About a 60/40 split without head scarves. I listened and watched women in the legislature fully participate in the debate going on. A tenured professor at Kuwait University was part of an academic panel I had the good fortune to sit in on. Women were driving and unescorted as they shopped in the mall, including at a Victoria Secret. Women were also involved in a series of protests that were happening while I was there.
Qatar was much more restrictive in all those areas.
Are you talking about the Mideast or the USA? There seem to be plenty of people here that actively seek subservience, will settle for nothing less than abject slavery. They vote for it every election! Can they be that stupid? Or is that precisely what they want?
A vote for either major party is a vote fr subservience — they just have different flavors and targets.
“The slave thinks he is released from bondage only to find a stronger set of chains”.
We Never Freed Kuwait. The US is not interested in the freedom of anyone in the world. If we where than we never would have reinstated there Monarch. Instead we want the world under the “right” form of totalitarian government. One that follows US orders.
That’s the underlying cause of our current problems in the middle east, and we show no sign of changing.
“Freedom can be given, but Liberty must be earned”
America and the Swiss are the only people to have a history of Liberty or freedoms in any form ………..no one else in history does…..
I would be hard pressed to argue with you. There are countries which have had some intermittent freedoms but not a history of liberty. My youngest daughter is a student of Norse history and Iceland might fall under the list of countries which has had a history of comparative liberty. A lot of old Norse tribes did have some form of republican government.
“The National Assembly approved on Wednesday a law organizing the collection of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.”
This is a desperation move of a government that can’t trust it’s own people. It’s worth noting that Kuwait shares a border with ISIS which it has attempted to buy off but now apparently regards it as a target.
Attempting to buy ISIS off demonstrates that you have money and are a nation of cowards. They will take the money, then come to kill you and take the rest, plus your women. Can we spell DUH?
If we had a REAL president, he would call Kuwait and inform them we would be pulling out if they proceed with this action. But we don’t.
One big value of the American people is that we like the ability to burn oil.
Lots of it.
That means we’re more likely to vote for politicians that do what they can, politically, to ensure that the price of oil remains low. So we shouldn’t be surprised that this particular president (or, indeed, any president since 1971,) tends to do what he can to make sure that places like Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia remain client states.
Most of our operations in the Middle East have much more to do with oil than the liberty of the indigenous peoples. But, liberty is mostly an unknown concept in the Middle East.
Right, so we should welcome that situation, with the caveat that we are not going to prop up the tinpot dictators, but we’re not going to spend our blood to knock them down, either. After YOU determine your government, WE will deal with them. Easy, huh?
This isn’t the people, it’s the rich corrupt power families that rule these oil island nations, Kuwait and the house of Saud keep their citizens pretty well helpless lest a group of them rise up and depose them. Kinda like here
When I was in Saudi in ’90 and ’91, the Saudis were kept content, by free everything and no taxes or responsibility. They were not unable to rebel, they were uninterested.
Let them rot, then. They will reap what they sow eventually.
You cannot change culture like that n Kuwait over night. It is fully ingrained and the idea of freedom does not resonate. Plus, all the rich in country have security teams – safety is someone else’s job. And if you are poor, you are expendable.
Even in the UK, what happened in France has not changed anything. Even a massive attack in London where hundreds die will not change thinking. They fully indoctrinated to always have a nanny state. Many who I know in Canada feel the same, protection is completely the job of the state to the point that the state is allowed to determine the temperature of your steak and what food you can eat.
Freedom and its concept does not exist in many countries and is being systematically eliminated in otters.
Given all the schools and higher education are so far left they all speak in an echo chamber they are indoctrinating the youth of America to reject freedom and independence is happening here too and is reflected in every major metro area. What happens when freedom is lost is truly scary.
“Freedom and its concept does not exist in many countries and is being systematically eliminated in otters.”
NOOOOOOO! Not the otters! Keep the otters free!
Sorry, had to go there.
When the Iraq military invaded Kuwait every employee of the airport was tortured and murdered. Then the Iraq soldiers went to those employees homes, raped and murdered their relatives as well.
When faced with an organised armed protagonists and denied the God given right of self defense, the result is always the same!
I have an ID from one of the unfortunate victims….and I remember.
My brother took part in the invasion that liberated Kuwait….he has no regrets!
He came home on the day the KY Fried Chicken opened back up…..too bad they did not adapt the rest of Kentucky’s better parts!
I don’t understand. WTF did the Iraqis have against airport employees? I was in that war, never heard of “airport massacrees”.
Hmm…my son was stationed in Kuwait and Egypt. Also spent time in Baghdad green zone. Speaks Arabic at DoD. He told me the Kuwaitiis were the worst people he ever met-with pakistani virtual slaves…he also spent months in Jordan and loved how peaceful it was(with a heavily armed guy on every corner). Of course this was before all the refugees form Syria showed up. Our foreign policy is a sick joke.
The whole region is stuck in a sick reflection of what is the worst of humanity…..they hate everyone equally! Only western dollars for oil lead to any form of stabilization.
THAT is coming to an end…for good or worse!
Kuwaitis get tons of $ for being, marrying, and procreating Kuwati. Its like Native Americans over here– except instead of casino $, its oil $.
‘And they threw babies out of the incubators…’ Anyone who believes anything out of mainstream news source is either a zombie or an idiot, maybe explains the popularity of zombie themes….
They did torture, murder and disappear many Kuwaitis. One of CNN’s Kuwaiti sources was captured by the Iraqis and beaten every day for a month, then left in pieces in a bag on her family’s doorstep. CNN didn’t report this and other atrocities they knew about because they wanted to maintain their access to Saddam. They only admitted their coverup after we overthrew Saddam in 2003.
So you agree that only fools accept what the mainstream media tells them.
A much smarter man then me was well known for saying “Trust, but verify”.
People have got to get it through their thick heads. Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are our enemies. They are the funders of Islamic terrorism. They sell us oil, pretend to be our allies, and fund terrorism around the globe, laughing at our credulousness. Of course Kuwait doesn’t want an armed populace. It’s a theocratic despotism, what the heck do you expect? Tyranny isn’t being “reinstated” by the country’s ruling elite! They’ve always been tyrants!
That’s why our shale oil and gas production by eeeevil fracking is so critical. It makes us somewhat less dependent on those backward tribes.
In an earlier era, Iraq would be paying us tribute in the form of regular oil shipments.
Arguably, we can also say that Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia created ISIS (which all, along with Turkey, they are said to covertly fund) as a counter to Iranian moves in Iraq. ISIS can be seen as a Sunni Proxy of Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the same way that Iran used Syria and Hezbolla as Proxies. The US invasion of Iraq, its failure to create a stable government followed by an abrupt and most unwise pullout created a power vacuum in the middle east that caused the Gulf oil states to take matters into their own hands to find a way of defending against newly vigorous Iranian expansionism. That defense is called ISIS. ISIS most likely started out as a mercenary army controlled by the Gulf states. It made geopoligical sense for them to do this. ISIS is now probably as much a threat to them as anyone else.
Kuwait is free to do what she wants within the confines of her borders. The only reason we liberated Kuwait was oil. I heard all the rich ex-pat Kuwaitis in other countries were grateful.
The attack in 1990 was probably a surprise to the Kuwaiti people. Now that they know what their neighbors all around them are capable of they should spend their vast wealth on their own protection, if that is indeed possible. Don’t ask us to bail them out a second time.
Meanwhile not too far away in Tehran plans are being drawn up and our government could care less.
They’re too busy spending their vast wealth spreading Sharia and terror around the globe.
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