The Tragedy Of My Uncle Khaled And The Gulf War Of 1990-91

The Tragedy of My Uncle Khaled and the Gulf War of 1990-91 In his chapter from On Writing Well dealing with family history, author William Zinsser has written, â€Å"Writers are the custodians of memory.† (281) This means that those who write preserve history. I hope to accomplish this here by remembering my late uncle Khaled’s experience of the Iraqi invasion, and occupation of, my native country of Kuwait. In doing such a nonfiction assignment, it is important to recall something else Zinsser wrote in his book: â€Å"The moral for nonfiction writers is: think broadly about your assignment†¦Push the boundaries of your subject and see where it takes you.† (247) This represents another key objective for this effort. Thus, if Uncle Khaled’s memory is†¦show more content†¦One could even add Syria, a violent enemy of Iraq.† This was the normal opinion held by Kuwaitis for as long as the first two weeks of Iraqi occupation. The opinion inc reased or decreased in intensity with statements made at Arab League meetings for and against the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, as well as strong public denunciations by foreign nations (especially the U.S.) of the invasion or less passionate, neutral, comments made by other countries (particularly China). As the end of the first month of the occupation approached with no action taken by the Arab League, nor anyone else, my uncle’s opinion changed along with everyone else’s in our tiny country. When he would visit us he would still appear at least partially optimistic, commenting that â€Å"The world does not seem ready to take action yet, but it will. In the meantime, the Iraqis will tire of this game soon enough and leave.† Here, again, the opposite seemed true. As time passed, the Iraqis appeared only to increase the presence of their forces in Kuwait. Whereas Iraqi forces at first had seemed more scattered in numbers throughout the neighborhoods of the capital c ity, perhaps as only smaller squads of men, by the second month they massed in human blocks that grew in size to companies, or even battalions, of troops.