Thursday, July 11, 2013

Remember When the U.S. Went to War on Behalf of Kuwait? Here's How, Decades Later, Kuwaitis are Repaying the Favour

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say:
Syrian rebels have a new source of weapons and cash from inside Kuwait, and their benefactors in the oil-rich state are sending the aid to the most militant and anti-West factions involved in the fight to topple Bashar al-Assad. 
The role of Saudi and Qatari governments and individuals in the funding and arming of Islamist fighters in Syria has been well known since the civil war began more than two years ago. But now, guns and money are flowing from private sources and Salafist-controlled NGOs based in Kuwait, and they are going to rebel factions aligned with Al Qaeda. 
“We are collecting money to buy all these weapons, so that our brothers will be victorious,” hard-core Sunni Islamist Sheikh Shafi' Al-Ajami announced on Kuwaiti television last month, listing the black-market prices of weapons, including heat-seeking missiles, anti-aircraft guns and rocket-propelled grenades. 
Days later, Al-Ajami addressed a small throng outside the Lebanese Embassy in Kuwait and gleefully described slitting the throat of a Shiite Muslim in Syria. 
“We slaughtered him with knives,” Al-Ajami said to shouts of “God is Great.”...
In retrospect, Saddam Hussein's looking pretty good right about now. ;)
 
 

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