This sculpture resides in a courtyard just inside the first entrance to the museum. The symbolism is apparent; an Iraqi bomb striking a Kuwaiti house with the dates of the conflict etched in its base. The tour began inside with a brief recorded recitation of Kuwait's history, primarily from political and economic perspectives.

Next followed a series of winding hallways featuring plastic dioramas akin to model train sets. Each section would light up as one passed, accompanied by a soundtrack of music, dramatic narration (replete with the famously flowery prose of Arabs) and the sounds of war. Despite its lesser technological execution, the presentation resembled Disney's "A Small World" ride ...

... if the Small World figurines were fighting a Hellish struggle of interdoll carnage and violence.

These figurines depict a group of Kuwaiti women who apparently staged a protest during Iraq's occupation. As the museum's narrator puts it, "there they were holding high the photos of his excellency the Emir, and the Crown Prince and the Kuwaiti flag, resulting in the fall of some of them as martyrs, irrigating the Kuwaiti soil with the blood of their heroism."

"Immediately after the arrival of Iraqi troops they began stealing and looting. They stole everything, from houses, governmental departments, hospitals, even cars.
...
Against each operation of the resistance in any area, Iraqi troops used to intentionally destroy houses and burn them. Their recklessness had reached the extent of locating anti-aircraft weapons on the top of the mosque, thus exposing them to bombardment and destruction."

Wherever there's trouble, you can always count on a Nazi to make a cameo.

This scene depicts the rear echelon command of the conflict by Iraqi generals. My guide stressed that poor front-line conscripts served as cannon fodder at the tip of the spear, while Republican Guard troops remained in reserve, primed to "bug out when necessary." He believes that a significant motivation for the conflict was Saddam's desire to maintain a grip on domestic power in the face of restless ethnic majorities; that Hussein started wars to minimize Iran's influence on Iraq's Shiites, to keep potential rebels occupied and diminished in a state of constant war, and enable them to pillage resources from other countries as he could and would not provide for them himself.

All-in-all, not a terrible theory.

***WARNING: the next image is graphic***

An entire section is devoted to photographic evidence of Iraqi atrocities. The above collage shows Kuwaitis who were tortured and killed during the occupation of Kuwait. There are similarly graphic displays that document the results of chemical weapons on the Iranians during the Iraq-Iran War and the Kurds at Halabja. The images of children contorted in painful chemical death never fail to inspire grief and anger.

This is the "Wall of Martyrs," depicting Kuwaitis who died in the invasion, occupation and liberation of their country. The script on top is a passage from the Koran which reads, "Do not regard those who are killed for the sake of God dead people - they are alive next to their Lord, generously treated by Him."

Achmed Machmoud was a Kuwaiti police officer who "insisted on coming in and joining the resistance," according to my guide. "He fought with them in a couple of operations. Later he was captured and brutally tortured. His hands were drilled and later he got killed."

Fasil al Baham was a civilian who joined the resistance and fought in the battle of Kay Fan. "Kay Fan is the Kuwaiti town where the armed resistance began. He fought in a couple of operations, and in one operation, after they finished, Iraqi soldiers began to chase ... his cell. He (then) asked his comrades to go in one direction ... he went in the opposite direction and pulled the Iraqi soldiers with him. They killed him, he got shot, but he rescued his comrades who managed to escape."

"Asrar al Gamandi is a national hero. She joined the resistance, she helped western citizens who were in Kuwait and were subject to be captured. As soon as Iraqis invaded Kuwait, they began to capture westerners to use as human shields, so she helped ... by giving them shelter in Kuwaiti houses and escape outside Kuwait. She also helped resistance fighters get medical treatment and helped VIPs to escape. She managed to get interviewed by Barbara Walters and told them about the situation in Kuwait. She was a computer specialist and (on) one operation she disguised herself as an Indian servicewoman and managed to ... smuggle valuable documents outside of Kuwait. She dropped Iraqi spying devices on a local telephone network ... and there (is) more. Later she got captured and was tortured, her family was tortured before her eyes. And then she got killed and her flesh was thrown in the street. Wounds were all over her body and her head was cut by (an) electric saw," my guide explained matter-of-factly.

At the end of a long hall of plaques recognizing the service of all countries in the coalition was the largest tribute to the United States. The names of US dead are listed on the wall and the flag is from the US Embassy in Kuwait, shown backwards as it was flown after the Iraqi invasion.

Perhaps the most interesting section is the wing devoted to recent events, including this wall-sized collage celebrating Saddam's capture. The American responsible for the decision to show the dictator's ignominious delousing on TV knew exactly the right signal to send to those who would cheer his demise. On the left are the names of the Kuwaitis missing from the first Gulf War who have been confirmed killed. The blank spaces represent those still missing and there is a separate panel which is entirely blank, as only 40% of the bodies have been recovered.

Wall-sized pictures of the Hussein brothers cavorting juxtaposed against triumphalist pictures of their bloated corpses?

It makes a statement.

And below the pictures is one of Uday's pimp robes and foot-long cigars under glass. The style and intent of this exhibit alone vaulted this museum past the Smithsonian in my estimation.

This is the head of a statue that was toppled in Tikrit, donated to the museum by the Coalition. The bust sits in a re-creation of the spider hole and farm where Hussein was discovered by GI's. World-class schadenfreude ...

Saddam doing the frog-march.

The best part of the tour was the interaction with my guide. Albara Lwuhab is a 29 year-old American-educated engineer whose passions include journalism and history. I asked him a few questions to gain perspective on Kuwaiti and regional politics and culture.

We started taking about how - even in Kuwait - there are mindboggling conspiracy theories surrounding the first Gulf War.

Lwuhab : "For the invasion of Kuwait, there is popular conspiracy theories that it was America that provoked the invasion of Kuwait, so Kuwait could get destroyed and they rebuild it, American companies would make money and have permanent camps in Kuwait (I consoled him that this one sounded like an average day at the Democratic Underground message boards --ED). Others claimed that Israel was behind it, that the Jews are very powerful in the world and manipulated world leaders. Some even blame Kuwait, some conspiracy theorists even blame Jordan, that the Jordanian King feared the power of Saddam and he also wanted revenge on the Iraqi people who killed his relatives, a Hashemite who ruled Iraq during the 30's."

INDC: "So how popular are these theories?"

Lwuhab : "The most popular one is that America provoked the invasion. But I think all of them are locked in the same box: the external motives. Not many people think inside Iraq."

He thinks that (at least) 40% buy this theory. But when I pointed out the contradiction of the jubilation at Saddam's demise, he shook his head and said, "It is confusing. But it is very natural that the common man is a contradiction."

INDC: "But why are conspiracy theories so prevalent in the Arab world?"

Lwuhab : "Right after WWII, Arabic countries began to achieve their independence and at that time many were backward. They looked at the west, very sophisticated, and still many were poor and lack(ed) technology, and they were trying to build modern societies. But many people still were illiterate, and many naive, so (the rulers) used conspiracy theory to motivate the population, because conspiracy theory has more in common with the myth, the superstition, that are very effective in non-educated societies."

INDC: "Switching topics, women in Kuwait were just recently allowed to vote for the first time. What has been the reaction to that and how popular is it?"

Lwuhab: "Well, obviously the majority of at least the officials had supported it, and they had supporters behind them in the public. It is natural that things evolute to this way; women didn't vote until maybe after 140 years since the revolution after the American Constitution was established, it took Kuwait 40 years to evolute."

INDC: "And how did this come to be? Was there a popular movement behind it, or ..."

Lwuhab: "The conservatives still are against it, and ... even though it is ironic, it is expected, that when they did vote some women voted for men and even conservative men who had voted against women's political rights. I believe there is a problem in the region that they don't understand their history, their heritage, even their religion. When I was in college I was into documentary, and one documentary I was into was by a Kuwaiti professor about the Islamic Civil War in the 7th Century. Many insist on not talking about it. I think it's very precious information, but many conservatives and the religious clerk were against the documentary by the Kuwaiti professor because they claim that especially Sunnis are not supposed to talk about it. I feel (this is) bad."

"And then when September 11th happened, because of what I learned from that period, I could see that bin Laden and Al Qaeda and the Taliban are doing the same mistakes that happened during the civil war ... there was one portion of Islam that deviated and became very extremist and did many terrible things in the name of God, the same thing Al Qaeda's doing. And many are deceived: they look at them from outside and they seem conservative, they seem devoted, but they do terrible things. He (bin Laden) called it a war between Islam and the Crusader, but he is the one who is acting more like the Crusader himself."

INDC: "So tell me, why do you have this interest in history and journalism as a hobby? Why do you volunteer here?"

Lwuhab: "To do good for my society. I think there are valuable lessons behind the Iraq invasion and behind history. I love history, it is important to be aware to understand things correctly. I believe that there has been lots of mistakes, lots of misinformation we've been fed and it caused us problems. If we want to rise as a nation, whether it's Arabic or Islamic, we need to do it the right way. And we need to realize that the wrong information that we had absorbed before has taken us to a dead-end."

If the Arab or Islamic worlds have a bright future, it rests precariously in the hands of wise young men like Albara Lwuhab.

INDC: "Tell me, do you have a blog?"

He gave me a blank look.

"Have you heard the term 'blog' or 'blogosphere?'"

Lwuhab: "No."

We had a lot to talk about.

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