Friendship of Americans and the nation’s choices
rofessor Muhammad Al-Rumaihi wrote an article in “Al-Sharq alAwsat” (25/9) in which he mentioned about the American political behavior … sometime you and at other times you don’t. This is true. He also asked, in the part of the article that concerns me, about the policy that must be followed in order to preserve America’s friendship. It is foolish and unwise to take a hostile attitude towards the US, especially by a small country like us.
We have to think about the alternatives because linking interests with depending on oil has become an old fashion, and we must instead interact positively with Washington’s political currents in their positions, and build an intelligent, interactive lobby that speaks to American activists in their own language and other capitals such as London, Paris and Berlin should also be considered.
Economic researcher Marwan Salameh believes that it is wise for small countries like us to put their eggs in several baskets, to approach strong countries such as China and Russia, and to link up with global gatherings such as the Non-Aligned Organization and the like.
I add to the above factors another one that I consider the most important, in my opinion, to maintain good relations with Washington and to gain the sympathy and respect of the whole world is by respecting ourselves, people and government, creating a strong internal front, respecting the rights of citizens and residents in full, and rejecting any violations of the rights of any party and insisting on applying the law to the sheikhs and the people with a single rule.
If we look at what happened to Iraq, Libya, Tunisia and others, and the interference of a number of countries in the world, and even individuals and armed terrorist organizations in their affairs, we will find that all the regimes in these countries have never respected their people, and their rule was characterized by unjust and hateful dictatorship that seeks to subjugate the individual and insult his dignity, and get rid of opponents by killing them.
When their countries were subsequently subjected to aggression, no one shed a tear and no help was extended to authoritarian regimes, except by authoritarians like them and this happens in rare cases.
We saw the opposite when the forces of the reckless dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 and how the whole world stood by Kuwait to defeat the aggressor. It was not strange, therefore, that fraternity appeared during the sessions of the Jeddah conference, and I was one of its attendees, between the ruling family members represented by the leadership, and between political, economic and historical figures.
Our national unity is the fortress, our familiarity with our regional surroundings is the protective wall, and our alliance with the major powers is the security dome that protects us.
If we want Kuwait to survive and prosper, we must respect the constitution and apply the laws on everyone, and this is what we are seeing increasingly, and in an unprecedented manner, which prompted us and others to praise this good and rational trend.