In reply to Carrol's
> Its only
>>reason for existing is to deny Iraq access to the sea.
>
>
>But Basra is a seaport. And as far as I know, the only people who
>have ever tried to deny Iraqi ships access to the Persian Gulf are
>the Iranians...
>
>Am I completely confused, or what?
Whether it's about sea-ports I don't know, but the history is that the British did indeed separate off Kuwait to stymie the Iraqi national movement (in the 1920s, I think). Right up until the seventies, Kuwaiti nationalists campaigned for union with Iraq, and were suppressed with the assistance of the UK. It was only in the oil boom that Kuwaiti nationalism saw itself as independent of Iraq - and that on the basis of a nation in which the majority were disenfranchised guest workers from Palestine and Yemen (many of whom collaborated with the Iraqi invasion, as preferable to their own dictatorial employers). -- James Heartfield