Hussein Visits Kuwait, Chats With His Troops

President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday made his first trip to Kuwait since his army invaded the Persian Gulf emirate more than two months ago, in a visit that eerily underscored the Iraqi leader’s stated intention to keep Kuwait but avoid war at all costs.

In a 20-minute video set to a pastoral symphony, Hussein was pictured on state-run Iraqi Television meeting with troops in Kuwait’s beachfront foxholes and driving a Mercedes-Benz through a capital city reduced to a virtual ghost town.

Hussein, clad in a standard-issue military uniform and a beret and with a revolver on his hip, was shown joking with troops on Kuwait’s deserted corniche, a seafront once bustling with high-speed Kuwaiti motorists and foot traffic.

“Have you seen any Americans come to you?” he asked, laughing.

“We hope they come, sir,” the boldest among a group of obviously unnerved enlisted men answered.

“No,” Hussein replied softly. “We don’t want them to come. We do not want their evil. And inshallah (God willing), they will not come.”

“ Inshallah, sir,” the men answered in unison.

Hussein’s trip to Kuwait was a heavily guarded secret in Baghdad until just moments before the footage was aired on the evening news. The Iraqi leader seldom travels, and is known to have made only one trip outside the Mideast, a brief visit to France many years ago. Wednesday’s trip came amid persistent rumors in the Iraqi capital of the movement of Hussein’s top generals between Kuwait and Baghdad, which led to coup speculation. But the television report appeared to explain the sudden traffic among senior Iraqi army officers.

At one point in the broadcast, Hussein was shown standing with his top military advisers behind him in an unidentified conference room in Kuwait, as commanders from his occupation army approached one by one, each kissing his hand, cheek or shoulder.

These are traditional greetings for an Arab leader, but the timing of their broadcast was seen by diplomatic analysts in Baghdad as an attempt to picture Hussein as a traditional Arab chieftain who enjoys the undying support of his commanders.

The fact that Hussein--who is known to be changing his location frequently as a precaution against assassination or coup attempts--even went to Kuwait was seen by these analysts as a reinforcement of his pronouncements that Iraq has no intention of withdrawing.

Perhaps the most dramatic footage shown Wednesday was a lengthy travelogue through the Kuwaiti capital, all of it shot by an Iraqi TV crew through the window of a car trailing that of Hussein.

In neighborhood after neighborhood, the footage showed buildings devoid of any sign of human life. Only a trickle of traffic was seen on roads that once teemed with Kuwaitis in late-model imported cars. And in nearly every frame, the capital’s expansive beachfront was totally deserted.

The official Iraqi News Agency reported, however, that Hussein toured streets “that appeared flourishing after its return to the mother homeland” and met with soldiers who told him they were ready to die for their country.

After the highway scenes in the video, the camera cut to an odd vignette of a lone private standing beside a foxhole with a mounted light-machine gun. The classical music stopped, and the camera cut to Hussein and recorded the crunch of his boots on the sand as he approached.

The soldier was shaking as Hussein asked his name, then asked if he had enough water, good accommodations and contact with his family. To each question, the private answered with a curt, “Yes, sir.”

Then Hussein looked quizzically at the foxhole, dug into the sand a few feet from the muddy coast. Walking over to the foxhole, he posed for the cameras beside the machine gun and then stepped in.

“It’s too high,” Hussein, who never served in Iraqi’s military service, told the private with the tone of a teacher. “If someone comes from the sea, they will see you. Dig it deeper, sit comfortably, and then you will have more control.”

Analysts in Baghdad said they viewed the scene as a morale booster for the estimated 430,000 Iraqi troops now massed in defensive positions throughout Kuwait. But taken as a whole, they said they believed the news show was meant to reinforce the cornerstone of Hussein’s current strategy--to convince Iraq and the world that he does not want war.

In analyzing Hussein’s latest public foray, one European diplomat said, “Of course, Saddam doesn’t want war. If there will not be military confrontation, which Saddam surely knows he must ultimately lose, I think he will gain a lot more as time passes.

“The West also doesn’t want a war, so if you realize everyone doesn’t want war, then why not stay in Kuwait? . . . Continue transforming Kuwait into a province of Iraq and try to break up the international front around you by playing with the hostages and talking peace.”