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Millions have been allocated to support Kuwaitis stranded abroad. In Britain more than 6,000 Kuwaiti nationals enjoy monthly stipends for housing and food, supplements that average more than $3,000 for a family of four. Far larger sums have been pledged to the U.S. for Operation Desert Shield and to nations like Turkey and Egypt that are suffering collaterally from the economic embargo of Iraq: a total of $5 billion in the last five months of 1990 alone.
Kuwait could be expected to support those who may yet fight for its liberation, as well as to help those innocently hurt by the sanctions designed to compel Saddam's surrender. What is truly impressive, however, is the continuation of Kuwait's generous foreign-assistance programs. Over two decades, that aid has exceeded $17 billion -- an average 6% of GNP yearly, a percentage many times as great as that of any other nation over a comparable period.
Kuwait's humanitarianism is both real and self-serving. Genuine sympathy for the less fortunate reflects fresh memory: Kuwait was among the poorest of nations before the oil started flowing in 1946. But because envy is second only to petroleum as the Middle East's leading product, common sense dictates that a small and relatively defenseless nation seek goodwill however it can. "Better to share some of the wealth than have those who are strong but poor want to come and take it," says a Kuwaiti foreign-aid official. Recalling that Iraq was a longtime beneficiary of his nation's financial assistance, a Kuwaiti diplomat admits that "our 'buy them off' strategy can be seen to have failed." On the other hand, he adds, "we interpret the willingness of so many Arab states to join the coalition against Saddam as a kind of payback to us for so many years of our helping them. In any event, we are committed to continue as we have. It is both right and necessary that we do so. We will always be weak militarily, and Saddam isn't the only despot around."
While the policy of Kuwait's exiled economy is executed in London, it is determined in Taif, a Saudi town set atop a mountain about 40 miles southeast of Mecca. The Saudis chose Taif for the Kuwaitis because it is relatively inaccessible. The main road leading to the mountaintop culminates in a switchback that a platoon could defend against a division of aggressors. Together with his ministers and top staff, Kuwait's Emir, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, 64, lives and works out of the Sheraton Hotel near Taif. Modern and antiseptic, the hotel is instantly familiar to frequent travelers. Three corridors project as spokes from a central atrium that rises seven stories. The top-floor restaurant is open to all regardless of rank, but the ministers eat together at three tables set to the side, well out of earshot of the aides who serve them.