Could King Hussein Have Stopped Saddam Hussein?

By Nick Gier, Unfiltered 7-28-09

COULD KING HUSSEIN HAVE STOPPED SADDAM HUSSEIN?

By Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho

As we approach the 19th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, I'd like to focus on the role that King Hussein of Jordan played in trying to avoid this disastrous turn of events.

Because of fear that Saddam would also invade Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government allowed the stationing of U.S. and British troops in the country. No formal agreement was ever signed with the Saudis, and U.S. forces were not withdrawn until the end of April 2003.

The presence of foreign troops in the land of Islam's holiest shrines caused consternation among millions of Muslims, not just those with jihadist inclinations. Osama bin Laden was particularly upset by the American troop presence. In a May 1997 interview he declared: "We have focused our declaration of jihad on striking at the U.S. soldiers inside Saudi Arabia."

In her recent memoir "Leap of Faith: An Unexpected Life" Jordanian Queen Noor al Hussein, once known stateside as Lisa Halaby, recounts with great dismay about how her husband's efforts to stop Saddam's invasion of Kuwait were thwarted by American, British, and Arab leaders.

In 1989 Hussein allowed the first free elections in the House of Deputies, and 34 of the 80 of the seats in were won by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. Even moderate deputies were in favor of preserving the kingdom's economic ties with Iraq, and Hussein certainly did not wanted to go against the newly enfranchised voters of his country.

On July 17, 1990, King Hussein flew to Baghdad and urged Saddam to reach an agreement with the Kuwaitis over their disputed borders. He then called President Bush and asked that the U.S. mediate, but the request fell on deaf ears.

Even after the invasion began, King Hussein worked tirelessly to get Saddam to withdraw his forces. He obtained assurances from the Arab League that its members would not condemn the invasion until he tried once again to talk to Saddam.

On August 3, one day after the invasion, Hussein said that Saddam told him that he would withdraw if the Arab League sponsored a conference to negotiate his differences with Kuwait.

But it was too late. The Arab League broke its promise to wait, and at its meeting in Cairo it voted to condemn the invasion. Jordanian Queen Noor submits that "this undercutting of King Hussein's mission to achieve an Iraqi commitment on withdrawal would bring Western troops into the region and sow the seeds of radical Islamist terrorist attacks on the U.S. more than a decade later."

Regardless of the outcome of the debate about Hussein's neutrality during the Gulf War, no one doubts the value of his overall record to bring peace to the Middle East.

Hussein negotiated a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, and in 1998 he left his sick bed (he died of cancer in 1999) to mediate between President Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu. These negotiations led to the Wye Memorandum, which returned 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians. For his life-long efforts King Hussein was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998.

Except for the disputed claim that he sided with Saddam, King Hussein was consistently the cool-headed mediator between the Middle East's warring factions.

His greatest virtue was that he held no grudges, even against those who had betrayed him, and he always supported the basic principle that the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians, regardless of the reckless actions of their leaders, must be fully acknowledged.

Hussein's greatest failing, however, is that he trusted key players--Menachem Begin, Yasser Arafat, Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, and Benjamin Netanyahu--far too much. I am sure that Hussein regretted that he ever described Saddam as "a person to be trusted and an Arab patriot in the eyes of many."

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Read or listen to his other columns at www.NickGier.com

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.