Gulf War's regional blow

Military might could not remove Saddam Hussein

By Middle East analyst Roger Hardy

On 2 August 1990 Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, unleashing an international crisis whose reverberations are still being felt 10 years later.

The invasion of Kuwait triggered the biggest crisis in the Middle East in modern times. Arab leaders were forced to decide which was worse - to allow an Arab country to be wiped off the map, or to invite the armies of the West to intervene in Arab affairs.

Mr Hussein's western counterparts retired long ago

In the event, the West did intervene and Kuwait was saved - but at a high price.

The crisis split the Arab world into two feuding camps. On the one hand were the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, which, despite their fabulous oil wealth, were shown up as chronically dependent on the West for their protection.

On the other were the poorer Arab states which, for all their passionate anti-US rhetoric, were unable to stave off the new Pax Americana in the region.

Still in power

Following the war, the Bush administration launched what we now call the Middle East peace process, and sought to contain Iraq and Iran - which it saw as a threat to the new regional order.

But the Americans have found political victory more elusive than military triumph.

Last month's Camp David summit showed that not even the American superpower can impose peace on Arabs and Israelis.

And, 10 years on, the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - presiding over a population crushed and humiliated by sanctions - remains in power, mocking the West's efforts to remove him.