General Norman Schwarzkopf on the ground in the Gulf before
Desert Storm: His death last week has profoundly saddened
the people of Kuwait.
General Schwarzkopf’s
Death Reminds Kuwaitis of Saddam Occupation (Al Anba,
Kuwait)
"He is a
hero, and has been credited by God for the liberation of my nation of Kuwait
from brutal Saddamist occupation. We mourn his
passing, because he instituted his military plans professionally, forcing aggression
onto its heels and into retreat."
-- Mubarak Boursali, Kuwaiti Student at University of Kentucky
"God alone,
and after him the plans of retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, deserve the
credit for liberating Kuwait from the hand of tyrant Saddam Hussein."
-- Mansoor
Abdul Aziz, Kuwaiti Student at George Mason University
Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf with former President Geroge H.W. Bush: While America did more than encourage Saddam in his geopolitical misadventures, the pair oversaw his eviction from the nation of Kuwait.
WASHINGTON: In a spirit of gratitude and in an expected
move, Kuwaitis offered condolence messages to the United States, including some
to President Barack Obama, and some that went to the former President George H.W. Bush, who had issued orders to General Norman
Schwarzkopf to liberate Kuwait from the grip of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The death of this American general and commander of Desert Storm didn't fail
to cast a shadow over the Kuwaiti community in the United States. Estimated at 3,000,
mostly students - with the exception of a number of patients undergoing
treatment at U.S. hospitals - a deep sadness pervaded everyone at his passing
at the age of 78 in Tampa, Florida, his adopted residence since his retirement.
Mubarak Boursali, a student at
the University of Kentucky, told Elaph: "Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, former leader
of the U.S. Central Command, has passed. He is a hero, and has been credited by
God for the liberation of my nation of Kuwait from brutal Saddamist
occupation. We mourn his passing, because he instituted his military plans
professionally, forcing aggression onto its heels and into retreat."
The death of this American military official reminded Kuwaitis
who reside in the United States of the deep wounds in their hearts. Student Ali
Al Sayegh, who traveled to the United States to study
architecture at the University of Kansas, told Elaph that "news of Schwarzkopf's
passing reminded me of the sad scenes of Kuwait's occupation when we were young.
I remember the suffering of my father, who was held in the Abu Ghraib prison for two months and was severely tortured
until he developed a hearing disability due to the severity of their barbaric
practices."
Sayegh suggests, "paying tribute
to retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of U.S. Central Command, who
succeeded in pushing aggression and removing such profound suffering from our
beloved Kuwaiti territory."
After the announcement of Schwarzkopf's death, the pain of
Saddam's invasion of Kuwait came to the surface immediately. As for those who were
most affected, George Mason University computer science doctoral candidate Mansoor Abdul Aziz lost two of his relatives. He said, "When
I heard the news of General Schwarzkopf's death, I remembered the sadness of
the invasion. I was nine years old then and I remember well the scope of the mass
occupation Saddam Hussein's brutal army inflicted on my country of Kuwait. We
lost many martyrs, including my cousin who was captured and never returned. We
count as martyrs both he and my father's cousin, who was killed as he resisted,
giving his blood for the redemption of the homeland."
Mansoor Abdul Aziz is well
aware that the 1990 occupation would never have occurred if not for a U.S. plan
that offered Kuwait to Saddam Hussein as bait, which thanks to his intense stupidity
he took, but he corrects, saying: "actually, God alone, and after him the
plans of retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, deserve the credit for liberating
Kuwait from the hand of tyrant Saddam Hussein."
Although the average age of Kuwaiti students in America
doesn't exceed 23 years, i.e.: they didn't witness Saddam Hussein's invasion of
Kuwait, most of them have heard horrific stories passed down by their parents.
These include Abdul Rahman Al-Mutairi,
an accounting major at the University of Northern Kentucky who was born the
night of the invasion in a Saudi hospital, after his mother managed to escape the
grip of Saddam's forces.
He says: "News of the passing of the general transported
me back - not to the days of the bitter invasion, but to the repeated
conversations with parents and relatives about the circumstances of my birth,
how tense the atmosphere was after cutting through dozens of kilometers toward
Saudi Arabia to allow my mother a normal birth away from the machines of brutal
aggression."
Muhammad Naqi, studying geology
at the University of
Mainz [Germany], also comes from a generation that didn't witness Saddam
Hussein sweep across his southern border in the direction of Kuwait on August 2,
1990. He only heard of the scourge of war from his family, and said, "I missed
that era, but my parents spoke to me a lot about it - about the tragedies. Among
the people of my country, there is no doubt that the liberators, led by
Schwarzkopf, are considered heroes who ended Saddam's occupation."
