Kuwait the unforgiving

It’s been 19 years since Saddam Hussein’s army invaded Kuwait, and six years since the United States led the invasion that overthrew the dictator, but Kuwait is still demanding reparations from the Iraqi people. According to Kuwaiti officials, Iraq still owes $25 billion in war reparations, in addition to some $16 billion in loans that funded Iraq’s eight year war with Iran. At the same time, Iraq is considering a request for $7 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund as it struggles to pay for reconstruction. Oil revenues have plunged from $7 billion in June 2008, to just over $2 billion in May. Given the beleaguered state of Iraq, and all it has been through, it is high time that these reparations and debts are confined to the dustbin of history, finally closing the chapter on the Saddam Hussein era. It is outrageous that a country that is