Cokes, Sweat & Sand

Apparently, Iraq's General Abdul Karim Kassem had thought he was only offering an Arab pleasantry when he announced his intent to "liberate" oil-rich Kuwait. He was amazed when alarm bells went off all over the Middle East. At Sheik Abdullah as Salim as Sabah's cry for help, Britain in a matter of hours poured 3,000 crack troops, with their tanks and troop carriers, into Kuwait from bases in Kenya, Aden and Bahrein. A British aircraft carrier and a fleet of warships appeared offshore; another flotilla steamed toward the area from the Mediterranean. After the fiasco at Suez, the British were delighted at the chance to demonstrate that they could still defend the vital areas of the Middle East that are the source of Britain's oil.

Storm & Drink. The troops swiftly dug in along the scorched ridge of sand that separates Iraq from Kuwait. But the Iraqis made not a move. Faced by a no-show foe, the troopers concentrated on survival in the searing heat (120DEG in the shade) and blinding sandstorms. Cracked one bare-chested trooper: "To qualify as a royal marine, all you have to do is be able to drink 19 Cokes daily." British and Kuwaiti officers shuttled companionably between neon-bright Kuwait City and the front in Sheik-supplied Cadillacs and Chryslers. Declared Brigadier General Derek Horsford, Britain's infantry commander: "Wherever my troops have gone here, they have been clapped and cheered --including me."

Scolded smartly by Nasser's United Arab Republic for exploding "a foolish smoke bomb," even Kassem started acting as if his invasion threat had been a desert mirage. "Peaceful means," he announced blandly in Baghdad, "will prevail over tanks and planes." Hopping into his bulletproof Russian Zim limousine, Kassem made a jovial, half-hour appearance at U.S. Ambassador John Jernegan's Independence Day reception, where he was escorted inside by ten U.S. marines and ten of his own Czech-armed bodyguards. Seemingly oblivious of his scathing attacks on "imperialist" Britain, Kassem deadpanned: "Our relations with Britain are stronger than before our revolution, being based on mutual interest. I like the British."

Cold or Cancer? A mercurial, wisecracking autocrat who seems less like a hero than an inspired eccentric to most of his countrymen, Kassem brays nonetheless that he is "a man England won't be able to beat." He explained: "The British planned to get all the Arabs against me as the aggressor. But, instead, I have united all the Arabs against imperialism. The Arab peoples are already with us. Soon the Arab governments will also be with us."

Most Arab governments were still annoyed that Kassem had brought on "imperialist" intervention. Nasser allowed a British aircraft carrier and five other warships to pass through the Suez Canal en route to Kuwait without a word of protest, but finally decided he disliked the British more than Kassem. "Kassem is only a bad cold, but British imperialism is a cancer," wrote Nasser's favorite journalist. The U.A.R. forthwith sponsored a Security Council resolution urging an immediate British withdrawal from Kuwait. With support only from Russia and Ceylon, the resolution was defeated.

The British, insisting that they were anxious to get out as soon as Kassem dropped his demands, offered their own resolution, which called upon the U.N. to support Kuwait's independence and territorial integrity. The Russians, as always unwilling to see a good quarrel settled, briskly vetoed it.

The big question, as worrisome to sensitive Kuwaitis as to Britain, was when the task force could safely withdraw. With the border quiet, the British were already scaling down their task force. They were expected to guard the frontier at least until after July 14, third anniversary of Iraq's revolution, when Kassem's next round of oratory may reveal his intentions. If and when they withdraw entirely, the British had shown that they can get back in a hurry if Kuwait needs them.

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