SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The results of Israel's election on Tuesday, combined with the outcome of the upcoming U.S. midterm election, could shape the next phase of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. This weekend, President Trump is weighing the possibility of another major attack on Iran. And today, just a few blocks from the White House, military veterans dedicated a memorial to an earlier Middle East conflict, the 1991 Gulf War. That war is generally seen as a military success, but it's often overlooked today. NPR's Greg Myre covered that war and was at today's ceremony. Hi, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: So this dedication - who was there? What was it like?
MYRE: Yeah, several thousand people turned out. Many current military members, veterans who served in that war - they came together for the formal dedication of what's known as the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial. It's right next to the Lincoln Memorial, and it has this sort of minimalist design. It features a large circle that you walk into with these low, sloping walls and a neutral tone. It's intended to evoke sand dunes you see in Kuwait and Iraq, where the war took place. And there's a steel sculpture of an American Eagle and a Kuwaiti falcon and a fountain in the center that lists the more than 30 countries that fought alongside the Americans in that war.
PFEIFFER: I really like that sand dune imagery you described in the architecture. Whose idea was it to establish this monument?
MYRE: Yeah, the driving force was a guy named Scott Stump. He's a Marine Corps reservist who served in that war, and it was the first major U.S. war in the Middle East, and it went much better for the Americans than any of the subsequent conflicts we've seen. But afterward, he felt the 1999 war was being overlooked. So he spent the past 16 years waging endless bureaucratic battles to get this memorial built. Here's what he said.
SCOTT STUMP: All that was accomplished was soon going to be relegated to a footnote in history. It was being totally forgotten.
PFEIFFER: Greg, that war was 35 years ago. Remind everyone listening what led to it.
MYRE: Yeah, Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein launched this surprise invasion of Kuwait, his much smaller neighbor, in August 1990 and overran the country in a matter of hours. And he was after Kuwait's oil wealth. But this instantly created an international crisis with a major disruption of oil flows in the Gulf, so something that has strong echoes to today's war in the Gulf. Then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush organized this global coalition and sent nearly 700,000 U.S. troops to the region. After a buildup of five months or so, the U.S. and its allies waged a ferocious bombing campaign for five weeks and then a swift, powerful, decisive, four-day ground offensive that drove the Iraqis out.
PFEIFFER: Greg, we mentioned you covered that war. Even though it's been more than three decades, what's one of the strongest memories you still have of it?
MYRE: Yeah, those devastating oil well fires in Kuwait. Just before the Iraqi forces were ousted, they blew up more than 600 oil wells in the Kuwait desert. This created raging fires and thick black smoke. It made it pitch black 24 hours a day. We didn't see the sky for weeks, and it was even longer before we started to see a hazy sun. We were breathing small black flakes of oil that were constantly wafting down like snowflakes or ruining your clothes, blackening your car windshield. It was an absolutely apocalyptic scene and just a terrible environmental disaster.
PFEIFFER: Since that was Kuwait, where that was happening, was Kuwait represented at this event?
MYRE: Yeah, Kuwait actually helped fund the memorial and the country's ambassador to the U.S., Al-Zain Al-Sabah, was there. I spoke with her in advance of today's ceremony.
AL-ZAIN AL-SABAH: This war and this memorial recalls a moment when American leadership brought together really a broad international coalition, and there was a clear purpose here. It was defending a nation's right to exist.
PFEIFFER: And, Greg, now the U.S. finds itself in another Mideast conflict. What do you think the lessons of the 1991 war offer for today?
MYRE: Yeah, I think the main lesson is the way President Bush acted before he decided to go to war. He built strong public support. He worked with bipartisan backing in Congress. He went to the United Nations for international support, and he rallied this coalition of more than 30 nations that sent troops. And the goal was clear and limited - drive out Iraq from Kuwait. And President Trump just hasn't done any of those things before he launched the Iran war earlier this year.
PFEIFFER: That is NPR's Greg Myre. Greg, thank you.
MYRE: Sure thing, Sacha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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