| | A full assessment of the costs - economic, social and political - of the Gulf crisis would require a major research investigation. But already a preliminary assessment of the economic costs, narrowly defined, up to the provisional cease-fire is becoming possible, revealing the enormous scale and scope of losses associated with the crisis. Ironically, the US - which orchestrated the coalition against Iraq - appears to have covered its costs by payments from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, while the UK may be in much the same position; Egypt, the major Arab member of the coalition, has already been effectively compensated by its coalition partners. |
