1. Gulf States' expenses on the
war and contribution to the
Fund of the "coalition" $ 100 billion
2. Estimated damage suffered
by Gulf countries (Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain) including the
environmental damage $ 150 billion
3. Cost of the war for Iraq, inclu-
ding estimate for reconstruction $ 170 billion
4. Economic consequences for Yemen,
Jordan and Palestine $ 8 billion
5. Economic consequences for rest
of the Arab world $ 7 billion
__________________________________________________________
Total cost for Arab World
(1 through 5) $ 435 billion
__________________________________________________________
6. Immediate cost of the war for
Western countries $ 80 billion
7. Economic consequences for
Western countries $ 175 billion
__________________________________________________________
Total cost for the West (6 & 7) $ 255 billion
__________________________________________________________
8. Economic consequences for the rest
of the world $ 60 billion
Eastern countries $ 5 billion
Sub-Saharan Africa $ 1 billion
__________________________________________________________
Grand total (1 though 8)
Cost for the world economy $ 800 billion
__________________________________________________________
*** The author believes the margin of error for the above estimates to be of the order of 10% to 15%.
The author hopes that the governments of the "Coalition" countries, which are particularly reluctant to give precise information they owe to their taxpayers as well as to international public opinion, would correct or deny the above figures for the benefit of truth and the collective memory of mankind. (2)
As regards the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, I should like to recall that I declared the following as early as October 12, 1991:
"There has been violation of international law. A violation which
can neither be contested nor justified in any manner whatsoever."(3)
I again confirmed this stance in a letter published in "Le Monde" (January 17, 1992, p.2, Paris) in which I stressed the fact the "occupation of Kuwait by Iraq is a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter."
My position remains unchanged. My ironical references, below, to the "liberation" of Kuwait do not contradict this conviction as much as they aim to highlight the new occupation of this country by the United States and its allies, which divulges the true motivation of the "defense of international law" and the goals underlying the establishment of "a new world order."
This "order" is nothing more than the beginning of the "post-colonial" era. This era will last at least 10 to 15 years; it has been inaugurated by the outbreak of the first true world war whose ultimate goal is Western cultural hegemony. The West, as we already said, is not ready to accept the cultural diversity of the world and opposes the establishment of a genuinely new international order based on an equitable redistribution of resources and social justice for the inhabitants of the globe.
The following comments concerning the above estimates are intended
as a partial reply to a most biased information campaign which seeks to
put all the blame on the 7-month Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. Even the United
Nations system (i.e. UNCTAD) has started to give us figures on the economic
implications of the War!
COST OF THE "LIBERATION" OF KUWAIT
The "liberation" of each one of the 600,000 Kuwaitis cost the Arab World more than $ 700,000, or the average annual income of 500 Arabs. Should we limit ourselves to the 100,000 "first-class" Kuwaitis, the cost would climb to $ 4,200,000 per Arab.
The "liberation" of Kuwait cost $ 2,000 to each one of the 220 million Arabs; i.e. one-third more than the average of their total income per capita, which stands at $ 1,500. The cost of this "liberation" for the entire Arab world (i.e. $ 435 billion) is almost twice the total debt of the Arab World ($ 250 billion in 1990).
This is the "debt" of international law, democracy, human rights and the establishment of the "new international order" as perceived by the United States and the West.
The above figures do not take into consideration the destruction of a cultural heritage of mankind which dates back to approximately 6,000 years and whose priceless value cannot be assessed in dollars. Likewise, the torturing of Palestinians at the hands of "liberated" Kuwait cannot be accounted for in "petrodollars."
The whims of President Bush and the longings of Israel cost the world economy over $ 800 billion dollars - that is about $ 160 dollars to each inhabitant of the Planet. The "liberation" of each Kuwaiti has cost $ 1.3 million dollars if we take into account the total population of that country. This amount jumps to $ 10 million dollars if we limit ourselves to the first-class Kuwait citizen whose number stands at less than 100.000 thousands according to the list of those allowed to vote.
Defense of the "new international law" is "priceless", thanks, in
particular, to the "post-colonial" era, in which the colonizer-in-chief
manages to make the colonized party pay most of the bill.
Rabat, March 24, 1991
* Al Alam, 28 March, 1991, Rabat, Morocco
* Al Khadra, 29 March, 1991, Tangiers, Morocco
* Al Bayane, 30 March, 1991, Casablanca, Morocco
* Le Jeune Indépendant, April 2, 1991, Algiers, Algeria
* Réalités, n 293, April 5, 1991, Tunis, Tunisia.
2. 2 To my knowledge these were the first estimates concerning the global cost of the Gulf War to be published as the date of publication of the present article attests. At the date of translation of this article from arabic into english (September 1992), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (Kuwait) has advanced a figure of around $ 600 billion dollars with respect to the cost of the War for the Arab economies - the comparable estimate above which I advanced 17 months earlier stands at $ 435 billion dollars (or about $ 500 billions if one allows for the margin of error of 15% foreseen). Yet at that time everyone thought that my estimate was a "great exaggeration".
3. 3 "Futuribles", No. 147, p. 14, October 1990, Paris. See Chapter 1 above.