Like many Kuwaitis, Ghanim Alsulaimani still vividly remembers Iraqi tanks rolling through his hometown when his small Gulf state faced extinction had US troops not liberated it from invasion.
“However, the reality is that the US president is unconcerned. In a country where pro-American sentiment has long been a given, some are voicing once unthinkable positions: questioning the presence of foreign troops and President Donald Trump’s decision to continue the war. Because kuwait is targeted,” he added, he does not consider stopping or backing down simply.
“several penal code provisions, as well as the cybercrime law, criminalise speech deemed insulting to religion, the emir or foreign leaders”, according to Human Rights Watch. “Of course we are paying the price for the presence of US forces,” said a Kuwaiti woman who declined to give her name.
Boycott campaigns of companies seen as supporting illegal Israeli settlements or the Israeli government, including many American firms like Starbucks and McDonald’s, had become popular in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East.
A US government spokesman told AFP that security cooperation with Kuwait remains robust. “What Kuwait has recently witnessed was difficult, given the presence of US forces,” he said.
