It was 27 years ago that the then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain sent his tanks and troops across the border into Kuwait, setting off a chain of events that still resonate today and continue to influence events across this region and beyond. Volumes have been written by historians, commentators and analysts on the invasion, the international coalition that was assembled against Saddam’s regime, and the air power and military campaign that left him in power but crippled, but one that liberated Kuwait from the illegal acts of a man ultimately on a course of destruction for himself and his nation.
As a direct result of the events of 27 years ago, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) developed its Peninsula Shield policy, one that guaranteed the mutual security of all six members, in a similar vein to Nato’s mutual defence policy. That principle of strength in unity ought to be remembered today as Qatar shuns its neighbours and traditional allies in the GCC and ignores its international responsibilities and undertakings to fight terrorism and extremism across the wider region.
While Kuwait will always bear the scars and memories of its invasion and subsequent liberation, the people of Iraq are living today with the consequences of the actions of the regime then. The subsequent illegal invasion of Iraq by the US was based on ill-founded intelligence reports and a rush to judgement based on prejudices and half-truths. It brought a period of political and economic uncertainty, one in which terrorist and sectarian elements festered. The events set in motion 27 years ago, creating an environment of lawlessness where Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) could carve its caliphate from the collateral damage of unrest and violence, still endure now.
