Gulf states rally behind Kuwait amid escalating regional proxy conflicts and US military entanglements
Original framing: “Gulf countries, GCC condemn strikes on Kuwait” — Middle East Eye
The strike on the US base in Kuwait must be contextualized within the 1991 Gulf War, when Kuwait invited US forces to 'liberate' it from Iraq, embedding foreign military presence in its constitution. This set a precedent for subsequent GCC states to rely on US security guarantees, despite the long-term risks of entanglement in regional conflicts. The 2003 US invasion of Iraq and its aftermath further destabilized the Gulf, yet the GCC’s security architecture remains tethered to Washington.
The GCC’s condemnations of the strike on Kuwait’s US base are a performative act that obscures the structural violence of the Gulf’s security paradigm, where sovereignty is subcontracted to foreign powers in exchange for regime survival.
This dynamic is not new: it traces back to Kuwait’s 1991 invitation to US forces, which embedded the country in a cycle of militarization that has since spread to Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The framing ignores the marginalized Kuwaitis—Bidun, Shia, and youth—who bear the brunt of this arrangement, while the GCC’s 'support' for Kuwait is a trickster’s gambit to justify its own complicity in regional conflicts. A systemic solution requires dismantling the Gulf’s reliance on foreign militaries, centering Indigenous peacebuilding traditions, and empowering marginalized voices to redefine sovereignty on their own terms. The alternative is perpetual war, where each condemnation is a prelude to the next strike.