ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : U.S. Must Get Busy on Kuwaiti Reconstruction

When President Bush goes to Kuwait next month, as he is expected to do, it is imperative he tell the emir face to face that the reconstruction of civil order there is of global concern.

Sheik Jabbar al Ahmad al Sabah, the emir of Kuwait’s royal family and the head of its struggling government, has said that rebuilding Kuwait is primarily a job for Kuwaiti citizens. While the sentiment is noble, current realities render it foolish as a policy objective. Already, the job of getting Kuwait on a serious program of recovery has taken far too long.

Undoubtedly, Kuwaitis could have-- before Saddam Hussein’s invasion and reign of terror--done a workmanlike job in many of the areas that now so desperately need attention. But today, there simply are no Kuwaiti firms in business.

There is no electricity in Kuwait, except what is provided by emergency generators. There is no telephone service. There is so little water that I saw people drinking from puddles in the street. Virtually all of the offices and dwellings have been looted and vandalized by the Iraqi marauders. Indeed, unless basic services are soon restored, Kuwait may no longer be governable by monarchy or democracy. Fortunately, the crown prince of Kuwait, Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Salem al Sabah, has been more willing to acknowledge the futility of relying on Kuwaiti businesses to rebuild Kuwait. During my recent trip there, he told our congressional delegation that Kuwait needed, and would call upon, foreign firms.

But perhaps the most forward-thinking member of the royal family is the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S., Sheik Saud Nasir al Sabah. He has stated that as much as 85% of the work to be done in his country should go to American firms, and thus far he has been true to his word: of the nearly 300 contracts worth over $500 million already signed for the first phase of the rebuilding plan, more than 70% have gone to U.S. companies. He has been actively recruiting Americans to put out the oil fires, restore power and water and tend to both health-care and food emergencies.

Such help is desperately needed. The raging fires in the Greater Burgan Oil Field at Ahmadi constitute the worst man-made environmental catastrophe in the history of the world. To put the disaster in perspective, consider that the entire Exxon Valdez oil spill involved less than 1 million barrels. Each day in Kuwait, 6 million barrels of oil are gushing forth into vast petroleum lakes and huge, skyscraper-high towers of flame.

Neither words nor even television pictures can convey the magnitude of this ongoing devastation. Day has become night as the petroleum clouds block out all sunlight. The air is so fouled that one expert has said breathing it is 1,000 times worse than smoking three packs a day.

This is not Kuwait’s problem, it is the world’s problem. What’s needed is a high-tech relief effort. Ironically, Kuwait--unlike the devastated nations of post-World War II Europe--can pay for its own reconstruction. With an estimated $100 billion in assets, the royal family can literally call free enterprise to the rescue.

During my meetings in Kuwait, I presented to government representatives the portfolios and proposals of nearly two dozen Orange County firms eager to offer their services. And at my invitation, the Kuwaiti ambassador will join with representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at a seminar Friday in Newport Beach, designed to help local firms obtain work in Kuwait. In this way, we can do our part to see to it that the enormous risk and sacrifice that America undertook to liberate Kuwait will not have been in vain.

At the same time, America must not shy away from letting Kuwait know we deem it a matter of global security that decisions be made faster and more responsibly. The United States has emerged from the Gulf War in a position of undisputed power and international prestige because we utilized aggressively our military technology and unleashed the power of democratic capitalism. It is time we tapped that same American technological strength and entrepreneurial capacity to secure permanently the fruits of our victory.