KUWAIT CITY – BMWs and Mercedes sped down Gulf Road past the Kuwait Towers, three spikes rising from the sand adorned with enormous, blue-tiled spheres. On the viewing deck, young men in white dishdashas and women in black burkas on a date looked through the dusty windows at Kuwait’s boomtown skyline, all sleek skyscrapers and cranes. An American family of four, the father wearing a hat emblazoned with the logo of a local telecom company, sat at the snack bar. The workers, immigrants from South Asia, switched seamlessly between Arabic and English.

But even here, a tourist trap 403 feet above the ground, it was difficult to escape the troubles to the north. Frames held faded photos of destroyed rooms and buildings pock-marked with bullet holes. "The Iraqi invaders destroyed all Kuwait Towers utilities," read one. Another, in halting English: "Tanks and light missiles fired the towers by invaders because they want it to destroy Kuwait symbol."

There were more: "The barbaric destruction of Horizon restaurant by the Iraqi invaders in 1990." "Even the air-conditioning control center was harmed by the barbaric invaders."

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