The first world leader to speak out and urge sanctions on Iraq.
Thank you for sharing Don Veto she was an awesome, formidable leader and makes me very, very proud to be British.
Hope we can step up and do the same for Syria very soon.
From my life with KAC. A proud moment bringing her to Kuwait, on the VIP B 727 aircraft, to receive the Mubarak medal from the late Amir HRH Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
Myself and many other fellow Brits heard the above youtube speech on the BBC Radio whilst being in Kuwait during the occupation of Kuwait in 1990. It was quite terrifying to hear her talk sometimes as she was so very outspoken to Saddam Hussein. I remember we were still in hiding when the Brits were being rounded up and taken by the Iraqis to hotels and military installations and were worried that her speech regarding him "hiding behind the skirts of women and children" would make things a whole lot worse. But she knew her adversary well and eventually he allowed the women and children to leave. It was heartbreaking collecting women from Jabriya who were leaving their husbands hiding in air-conditioning ducts and having to be fed and cared for by Kuwaitis, whose own lives were in peril if they were caught 'harbouring' them.
It was my turn to leave, I was nothing but a burden, I would have stayed if I thought I could help in any way but the daily nightmare of what they would do to my husband was just unbearable.
We got the call from the warden to assemble at the The Sultan Centre, Salmiya at 6AM (if I remember correctly) and we had to pass by to collect another 3 Brits in Jabriya. It was heart wrenching stuff. We encountered the first Iraqi road check on the 4th Ring just as we left Jabriya. And immediately there was a problem, the Iraqi soldiers at the check point had no idea what was going on and had come across a Kuwaiti with 4 British women in the car. But quick as a flash my husband starts shmoozing them with news that the wonderful, great, benevolent leader Saddam Hussein has allowed these ladies to leave and that my husband was just doing his duty to take them to the pick-up place in Salmiya. Amazingly it worked. But Kuwaitis had been hung or shot for a lot less. We were very lucky.
The pick-up area was full of women, children and quite a few babies. We waited for the buses to arrive. Finally we set off and I left my beloved husband in Kuwait. He would not leave. He said if all the Kuwaitis left who would come and save it.
We travelled for 17 hours by bus until we finally got to Baghdad. It was a gruelling trip. We were still not sure what was going to happen to us. Eventually after two days we were flown to Amman on Iraqi Airways and then saw a big shiny British Airways jumbo waiting for us. Not until we had left Amman airspace did we exhale. But it was not over.
Tears stream down my face whenever I remember those times but I want my daughter to know what a great, brave daddy she has.
Indeed he was!! You can really tell the sheep from the goats here! Just ask anyone of them where they were during the Iraqi invasion! My ex fled along with his family to Egypt where he lived the life of luxury, collecting his monthly living and expenses allowances from the exiled government whilst the real men stayed in Kuwait and formed the resistance. Ducking and diving and never knowing when the Iraqis would pounce on them and shoot them for any trivial reason.
ReplyDeleteI know alot of the Kuwaitis had already left the country prior to the invasion as they were on holiday but it is the others who fled rather than stayed thatI really think poorly of.
It also disappoints me that nowhere do you see any sign of American or British flags alongside their own. It was our troops who fought for their liberation, people like my own brother who lost his life in the conflict and yet there seems so little gratitude for us or our sacrifice. How sad!
Oh my gosh, I have tears streaming down my face too. Thank goodness for such a wonderful man, I am very proud to say this is my brother-in-law and have always known my very much adored sister is in very safe hands we love you very much xxxx Sass xxxxxxxx
ReplyDeleteAhhhh Sass, sweety xxxxx So many stories remembered at this time of the year. He is my super hero. And I bought him the underpants to prove it.
DeleteDear Anon, so sorry to hear about your brother that is so sad. What a brave man. So many young men died for this country.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think that the Kuwaitis who stayed were not really acknowledged by those who left because in doing so it brings unwanted attention to their absence. I know many had small families but they were many who should have stayed.
Yes, seems the short and sweet heyday for the liberators has long been over :O( But in light of what some here think - that the war was just a money making venture - it's really not surprising.
Kuwait will always have big, fat, hungry wolves circling goes with the oil-rich territory. Hope they choose their friends and enemies wisely.