A day late and a dollar short

What was it I said?

...I have little doubt that with all the publicity surrounding this unnecessary charlie-foxtrot, the Kuwaiti medal will eventually be distributed just to kill the story.

Turns out I was right.

After more than a decade of delay, Canadian veterans of the first Persian Gulf War will now be getting commemorative thank-you medals from the Kuwaiti government for liberating the tiny state from Saddam Hussein's occupying forces in 1991.

The decision to distribute the medals came yesterday in a special meeting between Foreign Affairs, the Defence Department, the Kuwaiti Embassy in Ottawa and retired Gulf War veterans, and effectively ends a decade-old controversy that came to light this week.
...
The Governor General's office has agreed to turn over its master list of recipients of the Canadian government's Gulf War medal to the Kuwaiti Embassy, which will now take the lead in distributing its own medal.

"Absolutely we will do anything on our part to facilitate the process. We will send them the list that we have," said Rideau Hall spokeswoman Lucie Brosseau.

"Everyone at the meeting was committed to ensuring that the veterans receive their medals, the Kuwait medals."

Of course, it wasn't a particularly audacious prediction. "Hmm...we could stand pat and continue to get crucified in the press and by our own veterans, or we could simply relent, which costs us absolutely nothing. How, oh how to decide?"

And when I say "costs us nothing" I mean it.

Most of the cost of this process will be borne by the Kuwaiti Embassy, said retired Gulf War veteran Sean Bruyea, who was one of the veterans at yesterday's meeting.

"The Kuwaitis have been super generous," said Mr. Bruyea. "I can't thank the Kuwaitis enough for what they're doing."

Well, Mr. Bruyea, at least the Kuwaiti government won't forbid you from expressing those thanks due to 'reasons of protocol'.

And would somebody please write this lesson down where it will be found before yet another newbie bureaucrat decides to make an ass of himself by denying Canadians a little recognition?