Across a foreign desert, an invasion began that summer. Under the sharp stare of the moon, the roar of machinery broke the silence. Patrols and night workers witnessed the horror first. Then, as morning came, their friends and families rose to the shocking image of Iraqi soldiers occupying their land. There were helicopters. There were tanks. There was mass confusion.

Kuwaitis had only a few choices. Some fought. Flight was another option.

In their cars, households tried to escape through the treacherous desert, fleeing mostly to Saudi Arabia. And still the Iraqi forces arrived, in well-organized waves.

Sometimes, in the eyes of the world, the Iraqi leader appeared deadly, and other times, like a caricature of himself. (He wore a military uniform, though he had never been in the armed forces. The uniform was just for show.) In some people's eyes, he basically was a political gangster who had shot his way into power, although he obviously had the skill to hold on to his position against many odds.

This leader wanted from Kuwait a portion of land he felt history entitled the Iraqis to. He also wanted out of a terrible debt he had incurred while fighting Iran in an eight-year war. His regime may have been rich, but his nation was poverty-stricken, and many of his soldiers had been killed in that war. Middle Eastern countries had benefited almost parasitically by Iraq's profound sacrifices in the fight. So Saddam wondered, why the debt?

During the last half of 1990, President Bush began an epic buildup of military force in the Gulf that was so large it threatened to tumble over borders as a counter-invasion. (The U.S., as one journalist put it, needed the Kuwaiti resources to stay out of Iraqi hands.)