Kuwaitis question US ambitions | csmonitor.com

Most Kuwaitis - including the country's mainstream Islamists, though with some reluctance - openly support the American troop presence, whose military might is seen as a guarantor against any future belligerence from neighboring Iraq. "We dine with death if the Americans leave us," says Abdullah Bishara, who heads the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies.

But there is genuine anger among Kuwaitis at Washington's perceived failure to resolve the festering conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Many also harbor deep suspicions about Washington's long-term ambitions for the region.

Though fear of arrest has silenced most members of the extremist Islamic community, and though he has been detained several times by Kuwait's state security, Mulaifi, [an] Islamic student, is willing to speak freely. Yes, Saddam Hussein is reviled by Islamists, he says, but a US-led invasion of Iraq would nonetheless spark widespread unrest in the Gulf and the Arab world. "Once the US strikes Iraq, [the Islamists] will emerge like devils," he says. "There are many true believers in Kuwait and the Gulf who will attack the Americans."