When I moved to Kuwait in October of 1996, to start the “real
adventures”, I stored most of my remaining belongings in my sister's
basement. She has just done a Spring cleaning and asked me to go over and
see if I wanted anything that was still there. I found a box of books and
documents from the Gulf War (you know - the first one - in 1990 and 91).
I'm so happy to have found these newsletters! It was a very sad time, but as I re-read
these, my faith in humanity is reaffirmed once again. When disaster strikes, people help each
other.
Some were compiled by American wives of Kuwaitis (Ku-Waiting
for News) and the Kuwaiti Student's Union (Voice of Kuwait).
Back then (90/91), we didn't have e-mail or the internet
(shocking, right?) so all these newsletters
were hard-copied and mailed to people on their mailing lists; and copies of
copies were made and distributed. As you can see in the photos, it looks like
the newsletters were hand-typed. Microsoft Word wasn't even around then and
most people couldn't afford a computer.)
Once received, most of us would make copies and distribute
to anyone we thought might be able to help liberate Kuwait (like Congress or the
Senate, etc.). I find them super interesting because they gave first-hand
accounts/perspectives of what was happening at that time; full of all the raw emotion
that everyone was feeling.
You may recognize some of the names. I never met most of
these people in person, but we kept in communication often to keep the news
flowing (I love you all and God bless you for everything you did and the
endless support you provided!).
I ran a not-for-profit called, Kuwait Link, at that time to
connect people and resources and disseminate information. I had a 214/7 “help line” (a phone next to my
bed!). I connected TV and newspaper news
outlets to Kuwaitis for stories; like Um Salah who watched in February, 1991,
as her sons, Jamal and Salah met on the street in Kuwait. (I met
Um Salah Dashti, mother of former MP and friend, Rula Dashti, while they were in
DC during the Occupation.) Anyways, one son studied in the US at the time and
joined the US military to liberate Kuwait; and the other son was in Kuwait
through the entire occupation and worked with The Resistance. (I can’t remember which son was where. It’s been a long time.) Anyways, Um Salah watched on live television as
the sons reunited, hugging each other in the street; one not knowing if the
other was even still alive. Often, I would receive calls late at night (after
the Kuwait Embassy in DC was closed) from people ask for help to find their
friends inside Kuwait. I would sometimes
refer them to a nameless expat man who had a HAM radio (amateur radio) that operated
secretly inside Kuwait and he would try to find Kuwaitis and get messages and
information to them. He literally risked
his life to help people. Had the Iraqis
caught him, he would likely have been taken to Iraq and then, God knows what
would have happened to him. Or the time
after the liberation when I received an onslaught of calls from concerned
people asking if they could help the starving animals in the Kuwait Zoo.
Um Salah volunteered with me and a group of Kuwaiti women
who trained at the Red Cross and with the US Marines at Quantico. Her shells hit my head on the firing line as
we shot our M-16’s at the targets. 25
Kuwaiti women joined the US forces with the honorary rank of Sargant to volunteer
as translators in the liberation of Kuwait. There is NOTHING in the history books about
them and probably never will be. They rode
with seasoned soldiers and slept in mud.
The often had to beg their parents to go, but they did and I’ve never
met a better group of determined women in my life. Some of whom you would never in a million
years guess wore combat boots! Mothers
and grandmothers in diamonds and couture.
Women of pure determination and strength.
And I want to say something about the amount of online hatred
I’ve come across from mostly young people who say things like, “Go back to your
country.” Or “America only helped liberate Kuwait for oil and money.” The expat people (from the US and the other
35 nations that formed the Allied Coalition Forces) I personally knew during
that time SACRIFICED for Kuwait.
Americans VOLUNTEERED to go to fight for Kuwait. People risked their lives. So, I take it personally when people say
these things. And if you are here to do that – please just go away. God watches us all and you may find yourself
in need of human compassion someday.
The newsletters copy is a large file in .pdf (about 9MB and
106 pages long), but if you would like me to email it to you, drop me a DM with
your email address and I'll get it to you.
