Killing Kuwait: Brutal Iraqization : If Saddam withdraws, what’ll he leave behind?

Relentlessly, pitilessly, Iraq is moving to enforce its imperialistic claim that Kuwait has ceased to exist as a sovereign state. By acting with methodical brutality to destroy Kuwait’s social, political and economic foundations, Iraq is seeking to make it impossible to restore the conditions that existed before Saddam Hussein’s Aug. 2 invasion.

The latest step in Iraqization has come with the decree that Kuwaiti dinars will no longer be recognized as legitimate currency. Kuwaitis and resident foreigners have been given just a few days to turn in their money for Iraqi dinars, an exchange that will effectively slash the value of private savings by two-thirds. This confiscatory measure continues the pillage that began when Iraq, immediately after its invasion, looted Kuwait’s banks and unilaterally canceled the billions of dollars in debts Iraq owes.

Only a very rapid international response to freeze Kuwait’s overseas liquid assets prevented Iraq from transferring to itself even more billions in Kuwaiti cash and securities.

Efforts at politicide--at the wiping out of an entire country--are not new. Three times in the late 18th Century, for example, Poland’s neighbors conspired to partition the country and literally remove it from the map of Europe. In our own time, the Soviet Union acted to destroy the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Iraq alleges that Kuwait is simply one of its former provinces, ripped from the motherland by British imperialism. That claim is historically untrue and politically insupportable.

Imperialism, as it happens, played a big part in creating the present-day boundaries of many countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and, yes, North America. But the argument that imperially created borders are invalid--because a powerful neighboring country says they are--is a prescription for international anarchy. Kuwait’s national independence has in any event long been recognized by scores of countries and by the United Nations. In no way can Iraq’s aggression be justified simply as an effort to regain what is legitimately its own.

But while the United Nations passes more condemnatory resolutions and international economic sanctions increase the costs to Iraq of its aggression, the process of reshaping Kuwait into just another Iraqi province goes on.

Native Kuwaiti citizens made up only about 40% of the country’s pre-invasion population of 1.7 million. Now, no more than 250,000 of them are believed to remain in the country. The places of those who have fled or been forced out are reportedly being filled by Iraqis and Palestinians. At the same time, Kuwaiti sources say, the country’s vital records, even the very names of its streets, are being systematically eradicated.

Iraq, sooner or later, will probably be forced to withdraw its occupying army from Kuwait. But the ruthless measures it is taking now almost surely mean that it will leave behind conditions of administrative, economic and demographic chaos. To that degree, one aim of Saddam Hussein’s aggression will have been achieved.