And the hits keep coming: I am being taken to task today by some well-meaning friends in Kuwait for being a little bit critical of the US, as if it were some sort of crime. But to my fellow Kuwaitis, I say this: The US sent its young men and women in 1991 as part of a huge international coalition to fight a war that gave us back our country and, most importantly, our freedom. We owe them them a lot for protecting us since then from Saddam's threats of another invasion. But the freedom they returned to us also includes the freedom to speak one's mind, and if we see the US as a friend - and I mostly do - then as friends we should be able to offer constructive criticism, even if it falls on deaf ears. I do believe in gratitude and we are forever grateful; we must never forget, but I am uncomfortable with the servile, flag-waving kind of gratitude currently on display 12 years later. A slight whiff of criticism, and paranoia strikes deep in these people fearing that the US will suddenly pull out its troops and leave us to the wolves, not realizing how insulting it is to the US itself that it should ever be thought of as that petty (this was before Freedom Fries) and not realizing as well that it's in the US's strategic interests to stay put. The coalition that came to our rescue in 1991 also included many other countries, yet - shamefully - our gratitude is reserved only for the Americans... and oh, right, the Brits.

In my opinion, the best way to show gratitude to the forces of liberation, should've been by making Kuwait a better country - a country they did not fight in vain to save, a country worth fighting for again and again. Look around you, and see what we've "accomplished" in the 12 years since liberation: Fundamentalist lunatics have hijacked our lives, women are denied their political rights, our constitution is under threat, our education system is returning us to the Dark Ages churning out hordes of ignorant underachievers, corruption runs unchecked, and our economy is a mess while neighbors flourish...... In other countries there would be riots in the streets but we just can't be bothered. We had everything going for us after the invasion, a chance to rebuild our country and let it rise like the phoenix from the ashes... but alas, apathy and selfishness preserved the status quo. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Life in Kuwait is very comfortable and pleasant, but maybe it's precisely this high quality of life that most of us - myself included - enjoy as individuals that has made us too lazy and too selfish to make a stand for the greater good of our country.....THAT is how we repay our debt to the Allies.