With increasing worldwide opposition to the war, particularly in the Arab world, Kuwait is perceived as being partly responsible for the invasion of Iraq by hosting more than 150,000 of the coalition troops now advancing towards Baghdad.

But the emirate is caught between a rock and a hard place, desperately seeking an end to Saddam Hussein's regime while trying to remain neutral in an increasingly ugly war it sees itself unwittingly drawn into.

With a barrage of Iraqi missile attacks against Kuwait since the start of the 13-day war and mounting Arab condemnation of countries facilitating the US and British military operation, Kuwait has launched a diplomatic campaign.

Senior officials are travelling to other Gulf states and the five permanent Security Council members to set out Kuwait's position on the conflict and shore up moral support.

"We will not ask for any military forces from these countries, all we are asking for is at least to denounce this cowardly act" of Iraqi missile attacks, said First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Sheikh Sabah also maintained that, no matter what, Kuwait cannot be isolated from the Arab world. "There might be incorrect stances by a number of countries but we should not mix matters," he said.

"I think Kuwait took the right decision in supporting the coalition," said political observer Ahmad Bishara.

"Kuwait has been a sitting duck for Saddam all these years" since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and seven-month occupation.

"As far as the noise we're hearing from the so-called brethren, well we're damned if we do and damned if we don't," Bishara told AFP.

Kuwait was under no obligation to appease other Arab countries at the expense of its own national security interests, he said. "There's no Arab consensus on anything, so why should we bank on it?"

Kuwaiti isolation "doesn't matter very much," although its diplomatic drive, particularly in the Gulf, was an important move.

Political science professor Ibrahim al-Hadban said every Gulf country had its own form of cooperation with the Americans and that Kuwait was being used as a "scapegoat".

"Everyone is blaming Kuwait instead of blaming their own leaders and regimes," he said.

Arab countries, Hadban argued, were not able to prevent the war or to convince Saddam Hussein to step down.

"Then the war took place, whether Kuwait liked it or not. It's not because of Kuwait that the American and British armies came here and launched the war," he said.

"It's very unfortunate that we'll be blamed for such action for a long time... The longer the war is, the more demonstrations we'll have and the more people will be upset with Kuwait," Hadban said.

But it's a price the emirate will have to pay if it wants security through the fall of Saddam.

"It's unfortunate that people can still defend a regime that has taken Iraq years backwards and has nothing to show the people of Iraq," said leading political science professor Shafeeq Ghabra.

"At one point, it will be clear that Kuwait was right," he insisted, and it was nothing new for someone in the Arab world to be isolated.

"There have always been complications between nation states and nationalism. It's an issue that has its own tensions, and its own merits and problems," said Ghabra.

"I wasn't expecting that we would have an audience as this operation goes on. It's clear that there is still a model in the Arab world that respects people like Saddam, regardless of the suffering they cause.

"We do pay a price for that, in our relations, in our position, in our status."

Ghabra said there would be a time when the war ends, "and there will be an Iraqi voice that will appreciate the Kuwaiti position.

"At some point the new government of Iraq will realise Kuwait was the country that stood for its liberation at the time when the rest of the Arab world didn't," he said.

SPACE.WIRE