His Highness Sheikh Sabah’s Heroism Essay Example

trying to define heroism and these are leadership, loyalty, selflessness, honor, and risk-taking. To start with, a leader is a person who has the ability to lead others to achieve a common goal in a successful manner. Leaders give service to other people and this shows that true leaders not only lead by showing the power they have but rather they work together with the people under them to better the current situation. When it comes to loyalty, a hero will never abandon his people no matter the situation and will always be there for them. Selflessness means that the person always thinks about others before even thinking about himself or herself (Schwartz and Richard 29). It is in such cases where we see people rescuing others from catastrophic situations without thinking twice. When it comes to honor, it is clear that many heroes and heroines are people of honor meaning that they are assigned worth and stature based on their actions to the society. Heroes are known to always give back to the society trough their heroic actions. Risk-taking, on the other hand, means that a person is willing to venture in unknown places in order to ensure that goodness and justice prevails. All these characteristics mean that there are those virtues or codes of ethics by which the heroes live by. However, there are still other values typical of heroism and every hero has his or hers.

My hero is His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. He is now the 15th ruler as well as 5th Emir of Kuwait which also makes him the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Kuwait.

He became the Amir on 29 January, 2006. He is 86 years old and for the most part of his life, he has dedicated his life for the service of his nation, Kuwait. He has done a lot of positive things for his country and this is why he qualifies to be a hero. His Highness is famous especially through his experience when it comes to the field of foreign police and diplomacy as well. Sheikh Sabah was the Kuwait’s foreign minister for forty years from 1963 to 2003. In addition to that, Sheikh Sabah was the Deputy Prime Minister of Kuwait while still the foreign minister. During the time that he was serving as Kuwait’s foreign minister, he was a great pillar in restoring the international relations of Kuwait after the Gulf War. Iraq had invaded Kuwait for a seven-month long occupation forcing the US-led forces to intervene in the situation leading to what is known as the Gulf War. During this time Kuwait suffered greatly in economic term especially because Iraq set alight 600 oil wells belonging to Kuwait. Iraq had accused Kuwait of trying to steal oil belonging to Iraq through slant drilling but in reality, Saddam Hussein had for long planned to invade Kuwait. Sheikh Sabah was in the front line trying to make peace offerings between Kuwait and Iraq as well as restoring the economy of the country to where it was before the war. He knew that his people needed a strong and selfless leader who was willing to make great sacrifices on behalf of the Kuwaitis. It was a critical time for Kuwait but as a talented leader

of the people he seized the opportunity to find ways to grant Kuwait independence from the Iraqi regime.

Sheikh Sabah’s heroism was mostly felt during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. During that time Sheikh Sabah was the foreign minister and therefore this meant that he played a great role as far as Kuwait’s liberation from Iraq was concerned. He was among the key people who organized a public conference in Jeddah on 15th of October, 1990 (Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah: A Humanitarian Leader 44). This was a public conference for all the people of Kuwait. The main purpose of this public meeting was to recruit more people in the army so that they could be trained and help in liberating their country. Sheikh Sabah played a key role in the liberation of Kuwait form Iraq and he wanted nothing to do with the Iraqi ministers who only represented the interests of Saddam. He made it clear that as a foreign minister is was not willing to discuss anything with Iraqi but only liberating Kuwait from Saddam’s regime. With the help of Sheikh Sabah and other selfless leaders of Kuwait, Kuwait was finally liberated from the grip of Iraq. Sheikh Sabah continues to show his love and patriotism towards his country in many ways. He is at the frontline of fighting against terrorism and he abides by the teachings of the Islam religion spreading the word of peace, love, and unity to the world. He works hard to ensure that he improves the living standards of the people in the country as well as in other countries. Kuwait is really blessed to have such a leader

who only thinks of the welfare of the Kuwaitis and how to live in peace with the rest of the world. Surely, the country could not have chosen a better person to be their leader. The Kuwaitis have witnessed many positive things and they are yet to do so because their leader has a lot of positive plans in store for them and their future generations.

Sheikh Sabah showed the aforementioned qualities of a hero which are; leadership, loyalty, selflessness, and honor. To start with, Sheikh Sabah has spend the most part of his life as a leader and by that it means as a Foreign Minister of Kuwait. This means that he represented the various interests that Kuwait had at international level. This is a very great responsibility whereby he served to maintain relations with other countries as well as with international organizations. He also coordinated all the foreign policies of Kuwait including activities carried out by the government administration bodies. It takes a great leader to successfully deal with international matters, which are very sensitive and can result to catastrophic events if not handled with great care. During his time as a foreign minister representing Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah always took into the consideration the interests of his own people before making any decision (Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah: A Humanitarian Leader 37).

Loyalty is yet another characteristic that makes Sheikh Sabah to be considered a hero. He served his country in a loyal manner and this why there was a unanimous vote to make him the Amir of Kuwait in 2003. Having served as a foreign minister for good forty years while also being the

Deputy Prime Minister, this saw him as the perfect candidate for being a ruler of Kuwait. He had served loyally and he deserved that position. Sheikh Sabah also manifested a selfless behavior because being a foreign minister he had the responsibility of considering what is best for his nation. Kuwait and Iraq had been at war and that was not good at all for the economy of the country. Sheikh Sabah is among the few people who are counted to be instrumental in bringing peace to Kuwait and Iraq after the Gulf War. On top of that, Sheikh Sabah never compromised his honor as well as the honor of his country and religion by indulging into disrespectful behaviors. All in all, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has been considered a humanitarian leader (Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah: A Humanitarian Leader 91).

Works Cited

1. Schwartz, Judith A, and Richard B. Schwartz. The Wounds That Heal: Heroism and Human Development. Lanham: University Press of America, 2010. Internet resource.
2. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah: A Humanitarian Leader. Kuwait: KUNA, 2014. Print.