Radio War Nerd EP #600 — What's The Matter With Kuwait, feat. Aamer
Guest: Aamer
Recorded: April 21, 2026
During the US-Israel war on Iran, Kuwait got hit harder than the other GCC countries aside from the UAE. In the aftermath, Kuwait is stripping citizenship from 20% of its citizens. We talk to Aamer about the history, politics and economics of Kuwait's reaction to its wartime experience.
Further listening:
-EP #590 - Bahrain and the Iran "Situation"
-EP #344 - Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait
*Maps:
Total time: 1:31:44
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Buy & review John Dolan's new book, They Should Have Been Hanged: War Nerd Essays on the U.S. Civil War
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Sound production by Telescope Audio
Comments (19)
Hit 600 in stride! Y'all have putting out bangers after bangers
SEND IN THE TANKS, CARNEY! I've been saying this for years
"release our guys who are accused of setting off bombs or we will set off more bombs" is what the kids call big dick energy
Big fan of Ameer! His ⚽ violence episode is an All timer
Hate to disappoint, Aamer, but we've got our own right-wing slime in Canada and Alberta (aided by Canada's own oil interests there) who want to secede. It's a tired old trope to assume "outside agitators".
I think a lot of bad actors get away with a lot by hiding behind the natural human cognitive habit of seizing on a single certain explanation. Realistically, it’s both. It’s always both; real and organic grievances, cultural currents, being exploited and inflamed by outside (US) actors
Aamer you are in Alberta ? Perhaps we can meet up. I will buy you lunch
Nice try, Kash
What I don’t understand from murky current news is: are ships passing through Hormuz or not? If not, why arent oil prices rising like they were during the shooting war?
They are, at roughly 10%-20% of pre-war traffic. The reason this isn't pushing up oil prices is that it is in terms of actual barrels, especially in Asia, but the speculative traded price is a function of the wish castings of traders mostly in the West who are eager to be led down the garden path by optimistic pronouncements of the sort Trump is constantly making
I remember reading that before the Iraq war, Kuwait was already making more money from its investments than from its oil.
"They did get invaded" might be my favourite qualifier in 600 episodes. Thanks for the shows guys ❤️
Wasn't Kuwait slant drilling into Iraqi oil beds? Isn't that partly the reason for the invasion of Saddam's Army?
There isn't really any substantive evidence for Kuwait doing that at the time. What they were doing though was overproducing oil beyond the OPEC quota, keeping oil prices low and making it effectively impossible for Iraq to pay off its wartime loan from Kuwait. Slant drilling was just one of many different accusations against Kuwait that Saddam could add to the cassus belli salad to justify the invasion.
In 1938, Kuwait discovered oil. This has made a lot of people angry and been widely regarded as a bad move
Congratulation on hitting the big 600
HERE'S TO SIX HUNDRED MORE
Congrats on #600. We really got a full episode on Kuwait before we got a single one on the romans at all 😂 (excluding sporadic Byzantium eps)
Romans are so old hat!