Member-only story
Votes With Unforeseen Consequences
On the local or national levels, democracy requires that voters pay closer attention.
I voted a straight ticket one time in my life. It was unwise and I regret it.
The reason was the second Gulf War. The first Gulf War was in support of a United Nations police action declared by the Security Council to repel Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The dispute was over money, the kind of thing normally settled in the Permanent International Court of Justice in The Hague. Iraq’s autocrat, Saddam Hussein, sent representatives to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in July of 1990 to talk about their differences with representatives of Jaber Al-Amad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait.
Iraq demanded $10 billion; Kuwait offered $9 billion. Mr. Hussein apparently felt he did not have to sit still for being nickeled and dimed when he commanded the fourth largest army in the world. Within two days, Iraq occupied Kuwait and Kuwait occupied a suite in a Sheraton Hotel in Raif, Saudi Arabia, excepting the Emir’s youngest brother, who died defending the Emir’s palace.
This invasion was plainly unlawful and the United States had the authority to support a Security Council police action, as it has done in Korea.
