—In the Iraq Affair!DO 26427/9/90

1. The UN said that Iraq would have to move out of Kuwait & release the hostages. Saddam Hussein is a very clever man, I think he sees he's up against too big a mob, the whole World consenting to the occupation of Saudi Arabia by American forces. I think he sees it's too big a thing.

2. Of course his withdrawal from Kuwait would pull the teeth out of the UN & American resolutions, etc. If he gets out, he's done part of what they asked him to do. But he'll still have enough hostages to make the World & the U.S. think twice about going in & attacking him when he has done the main thing they asked him to do, get out of Kuwait. They will have no more excuse for attacking him—except maybe for the hostages.

3. They're not going to attack him just because he wrecked Kuwait. It's very doubtful if they could even persuade him to pay reparations. The rest of the World would not agree with it either. They might agree that he should, but they're not going to let the whole American military in there to attack him just to force him to pay reparations.

4. I don't think Israel will be satisfied until they can get the American military to go in there & wipe him out, because they want the U.S. to fight their battle for them to get rid of their bitter enemy, Saddam Hussein. So because of Israel's stake in the whole thing, I wouldn't be surprised if they would still get the U.S. military to attack; but the whole World would condemn the U.S. if they attack him after he's moved out of Kuwait.

5. All the Arabs that joined the U.S. just to get back Kuwait would probably desert the U.S. forces because they'd say, "Well, we've accomplished our mission, we got him to move out." But the Israelis are not going to be satisfied, they're still going to want a war! They figure that between them & the U.S. forces they can obliterate Hussein, & they'll not be satisfied until they get the U.S. forces to attack. But if they do, then the whole World will condemn the U.S. & the Israelis for attacking him. Wow! This puts a whole new wrinkle on the surface of this crisis!

6. It seems that he is well able to hold out even under the blockade food-wise, etc., for at least a year. They have quite a big grain crop themselves, & they have lots of goats & sheep, etc. They learned to sacrifice during the last war with Iran, & in that war they didn't even have to ration things. Of course, at present they cannot get Western products, but they've got plenty of oil & energy, so they don't lack there. They've been unable to get sugar, but they are the largest date-producing country in the World, so they can get their sweets from dates.

7. They imported most of their grain, but they have enough grain & other staples of their own that they could go without the imported grain. They've got a bumper crop of wheat coming up‚ & they can mix it with their bumper crop of barley to stretch out their bread-grain quite a bit.

8. This authority who was being quoted said he thinks their supplies could hold out—together with the staple supplies that Kuwait had stored to hold them for a year. If he managed to move all that to Iraq, besides what they've already got, they'll have plenty to hold out for at least a year or more. And you know that the other countries who are donating men & arms will never have the patience to sit that out. But I don't think the U.S. & Israel are ever going to be satisfied to leave there without crushing Iraq & Saddam Hussein.

9. I think they're going to insist on a war over the objections of virtually the whole World! I think Saddam Hussein should feel lucky if he manages to get out of Kuwait before they start one, because then they'll have no reason, no excuse. His mistake may be that he's taking too long to get out.

10. My feeling is that whether Saddam gets out of Kuwait or not, Israel & the U.S. are going to insist on having a war, because Israel wants the U.S. to eliminate their major enemy, their biggest threat. But that's where the U.S. & Israel are going to make their mistake. If & when Saddam Hussein gets out of Kuwait, I think Bush is then going to find out that Russia's not so agreeable to them attacking Iraq, because in essence they will have obeyed the UN resolution. They will have gotten out of Kuwait.

11. Bush was bragging, "I'm so glad that Russia's on our side!" I think he'll find that that's not going to be true as soon as Iraq has evacuated Kuwait‚ because Iraq was a good customer of Russia. It bought wheat from Russia, & arms, & it had plenty of money to do so because they have one of the largest reserves of oil in the World.

12. So Iraq has never lacked for money & oil to pay for all the goods it bought from other countries. So that's going to be an interesting picture. Saddam's withdrawal from Kuwait wouldn't embarrass him too much, especially since it would please the whole World because he's decided to give it back to the Kuwaitis after he's finished stripping it & has gotten all he can get from it.

13. So there's a new prospect to this: That sounds pretty final, that Iraq is stripping all the buildings of everything that they can get‚ & the stores, the government offices, everything, & then after they have stripped a building they blow it up! It certainly doesn't sound like they're planning to stay when they're stripping the buildings & then blowing them up, even the palaces! See‚ they're getting their vengeance on the Kuwaitis!—Stripping the country & making the Kuwaitis wish they had never refused to make a deal with them.

14. He did try to make a deal with Kuwait for awhile, he tried to make a deal with them to share their oil‚ which he claimed was partly on Iraqi territory. But they refused to make the deal, they refused to give him anything. He was just negotiating to share the oil on what he considered his own property in an area which had been contested for years, but they flatly refused, no doubt confident of U.S. protection.—So he just marched in! After all‚ Kuwait was once part of Iraq!

15. Well, it now appears he could very well be planning on marching out, but he's stripping the land—"stripping the slain"! (1Sam.31:8)—What they called in World War 2 "The Scorched Earth Policy." During WW2, when armies had to retreat‚ they often burned everything & stripped the land, burned the crops, burned the houses, barns, everything as they went & left nothing but what they called the "scorched earth." It sounds like Saddam's just about doing the same there in Kuwait. He's stripping one of the richest countries in the World, which had everything, everything! They had TVs & computers & fancy cars, everything. The cars also are being taken by the truckload!

16. If he's stripping the country & then blowing up the buildings as he leaves, it certainly doesn't sound like he's going to stay, & that would then get him off the hook with the whole World, to do what he's been told to do.—"Get out of Kuwait!" So that's a new prospect! Maybe that's what we could call this Letter, "A New Prospect": The prospect that Saddam, having completely stripped the country of everything valuable & blown up the buildings, including the palaces & all, is planning to move out just to appease the World.

17. Then if the U.S. & Israel attack, they have no excuse for it, because he has obeyed the UN resolution. Then the World & the Arabs would look on an attack by the U.S. & Israel as a real aggression, since Saddam will have given up Kuwait & obeyed the World resolutions, even President Bush's requirements, which just said he had to get out & give up the hostages.

18. Of course, if he doesn't give the hostages up soon enough or sufficiently, they could always use that as an excuse that they're going in to rescue the hostages. But there may not be many left if they do it, if he's keeping them by all of the centers of military operations, which would be the first places that they would hit.

19. And I'll tell you, if they started hitting those facilities that have hostages‚ there's going to be a hue & cry rising in the U.S.A.! The women & families in the U.S. are not going to put up with their husbands being bombed by the U.S.! They're going to scream to high Heaven if the U.S. starts bombing their men! Well, wait & see, it's not over yet! It's just beginning. The Lord said, "This is it!" So "it's" going to be much worse.

20. At first I said that I thought Saddam would rather die first fighting than back out. But now I think he's so clever that he's apt to back out, & it's going to be the U.S. & Israel who would rather die than back out.—And you can bet your boots they don't give a damn about those hostages!

21. The U.S. government is always a little down on & looks skeptically on their U.S. men & families even going to those countries & working for those Arabs! You know how the U.S. looked down on the oil workers in Libya. They talked down to those Americans who were living in Libya & even ordered American oil workers to get out of there! And about 20 thousand of them refused, they said that the U.S. had no right to order'm out. So the U.S. government really ridiculed them & said they were traitors & deserters & all kinds of things.

22. And that's about the way the U.S.A. looks on those Americans who are employed in those oil countries. (Maria: Yes, they're working for the Arabs, which to a lot of Americans means working for their enemies.) Yes. They've been working for them for years. The American Government won't have any trouble convincing their military forces that the oil workers are traitors. Their line will probably be, "The friend of my enemy is your enemy." They're going to sell that bill of goods to those soldiers & say,

23. "Well, they deserve to get shot, they deserve to get killed, they deserve to get bombed. They shouldn't have been working for the Arabs!" (Maria: Yes, "they were traitors to the cause!") "The enemies of our friend, Israel, are your enemies, & those who work for them deserve to get bombed!"

24. If Saddam did move out, that'd satisfy the World, the UN, & World opinion & certainly the rest of the Arab World—everyone except the U.S. & Israel—that's not going to satisfy them. I wouldn't be surprised they'll dig in anyhow & attack Iraq. But see, if Saddam Hussein complies with the World's demand to get out of Kuwait, the World could easily forgive him.

25. But then when the U.S. & Israel do the very same thing to Iraq, invade Iraq for no good reason, the World is not going to forgive them‚ the U.S. & Israel. And that's what I think it's going to lead to, & that could lead to even further war because the rest of the World is not going to agree to it, Russia especially. So it's certainly a "New Prospect"! God help us all to be prepared!—In Jesus' name, amen.—Whatever follows, the Lord will take care of us‚ amen? ILY!

(One week later: More support for this idea from an international news commentator:)

"The one thing that could in fact prevent war is something that the Americans are very afraid of, as are the Saudis‚ which is just a perverse possibility that once all the Allied forces are in place‚ Saddam Hussein will just pull out of Kuwait. It would be very difficult to attack him then, but at the same time it would leave his military machine intact, his chemical capability intact, his nuclear potential intact. That worries the Americans even more than the prospect of war!"

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family