Robert Fisk on the continuing saga of Iraq and Kuwait

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls… this is a mess. Kuwait still wants reparations from Iraq over the invasion of 1990. Iraq’s got its back up against the wall, and Kuwait’s kicking them when they’re down. Fisk asks if this might not just lead to a situation such as what followed the heavy reparations against Germany in 1919? Once the Allied forces ended their occupation, the German economy collapsed and they elected a radical party to their legislature… and then that party used a parliamentary maneuver to gain total control of the government… you know, the Nazis? (By the way, Germany’s still occupied by British, French, and US troops… we have no plans to leave, like in 1919…)

Harsh economic times produce strongmen, and not just in Germany: witness Chavez and others of his ilk. Does Kuwait really want to add Iraq to that list? The US forces go home in 2011…