Iraqis protest new Kuwaiti border markers

[tocqueville]

Iraqis protest new Kuwaiti border markers 27 minutes ago

UMM QASR, Iraq (AFP) - Several hundred Iraqis tore down a metal barrier recently put up by Kuwaiti authorities just over the border inside Iraqi territory, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

The demonstrators met in the town of Umm Qasr in southern Iraq before heading to the border to dismantle the barrier some 50 to 100 yards (metres) north of a ditch marking the border.

Kuwaiti border guards trained their weapons on the demonstrators, but there were no clashes.

A government official in Kuwait City later told AFP that the metal barrier in Umm Qasr was being installed inside Kuwaiti territory as part of a barrier being built along the 200-km (125-mile) border between the two countries.

Kuwait began the construction of the barrier several months ago to replace a three-meter (yard) high sand berm that has been in place for a decade. It is slated to be completed by the end of the year, the official said.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050725/wl_mideast_afp/iraqkuwaitborder
-------------------------------------------------------------

tells you a lot about the Iraquis feelings.... I bet that teh fist step of the new shiite Iraqui islamic republic will be to take back Kuwait in the name of Allah...

[Miss Chybil]

1. Iraqis can't take back Bagdhad...

I doubt they'll be annexing Kuwait.

[dmkinsey]

2. I don't know. Sounds like the same thing I told my neighbor

"You want a fence? Build it on your own property."

[bribri16]

3. Similar reason why Saddam invaded Kuwait. Slant drilling into Iraqi land

No one wants to tell the history of Iraqi's invasion into Kuwait but part of the reason was that Kuwait was "slant drilling" into Iraqi oil fields. Iraq asked the UN and the US to intervene to get Kuwait to stop but nothing was done. The other part of the story was that Kuwait used to be part of Iraq until the Brits lopped it off. The Brits have been wrong on so many issues from their days of colonialization and the situation in Iraq was just a part of it.

[ixion]

4. or the British invasion in 1945 that created Kuwait in the first place

It was a common tactic of the Brits in their empire days to put a friendly principality on the seaboard. The same thing happened resulting in other countries like Guatemala and Belize.

[atreides1]

5. Technically Speaking

There was no Iraq until the British created it. Under the Ottoman Empire, the area now known as Iraq was considered to be three separate regions.

The three regions were known by their largest cities, Mosul, Baghdad,
and Basra.

Kuwait on the other hand was established in the 16th Century, and was made a British Protectorate in 1899, so the claim from Iraq that
Kuwait was originally Iraqi property is a myth.

The only relationship that Iraq and Kuwait shared was that at one time both were considered part of the Ottoman Empire, and that of course was before Iraq even existed as a sovereign nation.

[James T. Kirk]

6. Thank you! So many people fail to think of this!

I remember hearing about how "Kuwait was always part of Iraq" back before the Persian Gulf War.