Kuwaitis in Southland: Hope, Fear : Expatriates: About 200 refugees in the region find solace in others within their community.

For almost six months, they have sought the solace of each other. Kuwaitis who came to the United States to study, to do business, to vacation, had suddenly become refugees. Many would hear that their homes had been looted; some would learn a brother was missing. When they gathered, they would offer the traditional Islamic greeting.

“ Salaam aleikum ,” they would say. Peace upon you.

For Kuwaitis, today is one of hope and trepidation. Perhaps at the last moment, Saddam Hussein will remove his troops. But if not, many Kuwaitis hope for a quick, decisive military strike that will liberate, although surely further devastate, their occupied land.

The mood of the Kuwaiti people is “optimistic,” said Adnan Saleh, an organizer of Southern California’s small Kuwaiti community, believed to number about 200. He paused and added, “Coupled with fear.”

Civilian casualties could be high. About 500,000 Kuwaitis are thought to be in exile, including a few thousand in the United States. But more than 250,000 remain inside Kuwait.

“I am scared,” said Zaman Sadeq, whose husband stayed behind while she lives with their teen-age daughters in Los Angeles. She asks herself if a liberated Kuwait is worth war and seems unable to decide. “I am scared not only for Kuwaitis, but everyone. I see the American troops out there, so young. I don’t know. . . . I want them (the Iraqis) to leave.”

“Our little country will be destroyed the most,” said Husain Jasem, a 45-year-old business executive whose family was vacationing in the United States when his country was invaded. “But it looks like this guy (Hussein) only understands force, only understands war. And it may be, the sooner, the better.”

Their sentiments have changed little since the surprise attack awakened Kuwait at 5:45 a.m. on Aug. 2. Now, with great armies poised for battle and the numbers of anti-war protesters growing in America and Europe, the Kuwaitis struggle harder to be heard.

On Sunday, about 100 Kuwaitis and their American friends gathered at the Federal Building in Westwood. A strong wind made it hard to hold signs that declared: “It’s Not for Oil. It’s for Justice,” “Hussein Is a Baby Killer” and “Thank You, America.”

The Kuwaitis also had been there the day before but were overwhelmed by an estimated 5,000 anti-war demonstrators. This time, dozens of anti-war protesters provided the counterdemonstration to the Kuwaitis. “Why don’t you care about the Palestinians?” one heckler yelled.

As anti-war sentiment grows, Kuwait-bashing has become popular in some quarters.

Although Amnesty International has reported tortures and executions of Kuwaitis by Iraq, some anti-war groups have seemed unimpressed. Kuwaitis were offended when the L.A. Coalition Against U.S. Intervention in the Middle East narrowly voted against condemnation of Iraq’s invasion.

Kuwaitis have been told that their country is not worth war for many reasons: that they are a wealthy ruling class who exploited Palestinians and other foreign workers; that their nation is “a medieval monarchy” that does not respect the rights of women, and, worst of all, that Kuwaitis are unwilling to fight.

Some of the criticism is true, some partially true, some false. To Kuwaiti ears, it sounds shrill, ignorant or beside the point.

True, much of the blue-collar work force in Kuwait was made up of foreigners, including 400,000 Palestinian refugees. Citizenship was not easy to attain, but one reason, they point out, is the Arab League’s and Palestine Liberation Organization’s desire that Palestinians retain their identity.

Also, foreign workers considered themselves lucky to have a job that would support whole families in poor Third World nations, Kuwaitis contend.

And Kuwaiti women argue that although they did not have the right to vote, it was coming, and they have had more freedom than women in other Arab lands.

Abdul Majeed Shatti, a Kuwaiti economist now in military training, sees a cynicism in American media as part of the problem. He was gratified when a major network evening news broadcast followed a report on Amnesty International’s findings, then disillusioned with a story about a Kuwaiti group’s hiring of the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm.

And, Shatti recalled, “When the freed hostages spoke about the courage of the Kuwaitis, it was followed by a baseless story about Kuwaitis sipping coffee and tea, unwilling to fight for their country.”

That notion, Kuwaitis say, has already been shown to be tragically false.

More than 2,000 Kuwaitis were believed killed in the Iraqi invasion. Scores of Kuwaitis who mounted a resistance were hunted down, tortured and killed by Iraqis, many escapees say.

Such news inspired virtually every male Kuwaiti student in the United States to volunteer for military duty, according to Kuwaiti Embassy officials. More than 300 were activated recently and put into training by the U.S. Army at Ft. Dix, N.J., to serve as scouts and translators assigned to U.S. military units.

Already, hundreds of Kuwaiti students have left for allied Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt and are training as military volunteers, Kuwaiti officials say.

Although American and allied troops are better equipped and better trained, Kuwaitis expect to be among the first troops inside their nation if a ground invasion is ordered.

Yet, amid crisis, many Kuwaitis remain hopeful that war will be averted. Before heading off for Ft. Dix, Shatti gave a reporter his home phone number in Kuwait--even though he knows his house has been looted. Wait and see, Shatti predicted: Hussein will pull out.

If war comes, many Kuwaitis expect it to be brief. They predict massive surrender or retreat by many Iraqi soldiers who realize that Kuwait is not, as Hussein claims, the 19th province of Iraq but a sovereign Arab emirate with 250 years of history.