Kuwait after the war..

Kuwait's Military Forces
Before the Gulf War
Kuwait faces unique challenges in utilizing these arms orders and
rebtritding its ditary forces. The Gulf War destroyed much of
hwait's ntilitary capa,l?ility in August, 1990, and has forced Kuwit to
try to recr~ate many of its previous rrrilitary capabilities while it is
simultaneously being forced to add new forces and capabilities to deal
with the threat from Iran and Iraq. Som of the prohlems Kuwait has
encountesed in meeting these challenges are the inevitable result of a
small nation qing to deal with major threats in the milist cJf post-war
rclconstruction. Other problems Kuwait encountered long before the
GuXf War, Thus it is necessary to understand the pre-war strengths and
weaknesses of Kuwait" forces in order to understand currmt militv
developments in Kuwait.
Kuwait" military forces had a paper strength of around 20,000 men at
the time Iraq invaded. This manpower included. large numbers of
Redouins who wcre not full dtizens. Kuwait was hcavily depende~~t on
hreign persome1 for its technic& support, service and logistic support,
maintenance, md training. These support personnel inclutled Jodanians,
Pakistrxnis, and Egyptians, some of .cvhorn were of mediocre. quality.
There were US, British, md Fmch military and contractor missions lfor
virkally atl of Kuwait's more aei\ianced and \Nestem-supplied mftitary
equipment. Hokvever, these teams only provided techical support and
often experienced problems with Kuwait's bureaucmcy
Kuwait did have a number of well trained officers, some of whom
attended Smdlaurst. Other Officers, and some NCQs and techicians,
had trained in the US, Pakistan, and Jordan, The ofiicer corps and NCOs
were relatively loyal and werl, recruited from the ruiing family and loyal
tribes. Unfortunately recruitment and promotion were often domhated
by favoritism, rather than performance. Kuwait also had severe difficulty
~cruiting its citizens into the mftitary, Its populatim before the Iraqi
hvasion was only about 2.2 million, and less thm 30% of this was native