A decade on, Kuwait still needs U.S. shield against Iraq
By Omar Hasan
KUWAIT CITY (AFP): Kuwait has spent lavishly on re-armament, but a decade after liberation from Iraq, the emirate, like other Gulf monarchies, still relies fully on the United States for protection against Saddam Hussein.
The oil-rich emirate has already used most of a special US$12 billion arms budget introduced in 1992 to rebuild the military, shattered by seven months of Iraqi occupation.
This does not include regular spending on the army and the police which accounts for more than 30 percent of the $13-billion annual budget, thus making Kuwait the world's biggest per capita spender on defense.
Kuwait's regular army has nearly 40,000 troops including reserves, but the emirate depends for its security on the main 1991 Gulf war coalition partners, the United States, Britain and France, analysts say.
"Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will continue to need foreign troops (for protection) as long as the Iraqi mentality is not changed," said Sami al-Faraj, head of the independent Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies.
Security "requires regional and international alliances, which Kuwait has done in the past decade," he added.
In the defense spending spree, the United States has supplied tanks and jets, Britain has delivered armored personnel carriers and the French provided fast naval patrol boats.
Moscow and Beijing, the other two permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, have supplied a multi-launch rocket system and a battalion of artillery guns respectively.
Yet, whatever the fears and however much is spent, Kuwait with a little more than 800,000 citizens can only expect to build a "credible deterrent" against aggression, while allied support remains the defensive backbone.
"We don't have the numbers (to face Iraq). If we hold the Iraqis for two or three days, it's excellent. We have to equip our military to help it stand for four or five days," before outside help arrives, former defense minister Sheikh Salem al- Sabah has said.
The emirate signed defense accords with Britain, France and the United States after the conflict and made non-binding pacts with Russia and China.
Kuwait says it will renew its defense pact with Washington when it expires by the end of the current year.
The United States has some 4,500 troops in Kuwait and is planning to strengthen its air bases in the emirate. A total of 25,000 U.S. troops and several naval vessels are permanently stationed in Gulf waters.
"But, the balance of power is still in Iraq's favor in spite of the presence of foreign troops in the region," Faraj said.
"The crushing military defeat of Iraq at the end of the Gulf War has failed to have a conclusive political result. This is evident in Saddam's continued presence. The defeat has only postponed Saddam's ambitions."
The GCC leaders signed a common defense pact in December pledging "to defend any member state which comes under a foreign threat or danger."
The GCC has a 5,000-strong force, set up in 1986 and based in the northeastern Saudi town of Hafr al-Baten. The GCC is considering expanding the force, called "Peninsula Shield," to 22,000 men.
Behind Kuwait's rearmament is the fear of a repetition of the 1990 invasion by the Baghdad regime, rolled back with Kuwait's liberation on Feb. 26, 1991.
"If I were a Kuwaiti decision-maker, I would be working on the basis of a worst-case scenario, that there will be another Iraqi invasion even in the presence of U.S. forces," Faraj stressed.
In December, on the eve of the outbreak of the Gulf War, Saddam's eldest son Uday renewed Iraqi claims over Kuwait as Iraq's 19th province.