Operation Desert Scam

The Incubator Lie: How a Fabricated Testimony Paved the Way to Operation Desert Storm

On the anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Americans are invited once again to remember precision strikes, yellow ribbons, and a “necessary” war. What we are not encouraged to remember is how that war was sold. Not debated honestly. Not weighed soberly. Sold. And it was sold with a lie so emotionally potent that questioning it was treated as a moral failure.

That lie had a name: Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ.

A Testimony Designed to Shut Down Thought

On October 10, 1990, a trembling teenage girl testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers storm a Kuwaiti hospital, rip babies from incubators, and leave them to die on the cold floor. The story was simple, horrific, and perfectly crafted for television.

The media did not interrogate it. Politicians did not verify it. The public was not asked to consider context, evidence, or competing claims. We were asked to feel. And once the emotional trigger was pulled, the conclusion was preloaded: something must be done.

President George H. W. Bush repeated the incubator story at least ten times in speeches. Amnesty International echoed it. News anchors amplified it. The image of murdered infants became the moral battering ram that smashed any resistance to war.

Within months, bombs were falling.

What the Public Was Never Told

“Nayirah” was not a random refugee. She was the daughter of Saud al-Sabah, Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States. Her identity was concealed from the public. Her testimony was not given under oath, nor was there any cross-examination. No hospital staff corroborated her account, and no physical evidence was ever produced.

And perhaps most damning of all: the story was fabricated.

Multiple investigations later confirmed that the incubator atrocity never happened. Doctors working in Kuwaiti hospitals at the time denied it outright. Journalists who went looking for evidence found none. Amnesty International quietly retracted its claims. The myth collapsed—but only after the war had already been fought.

Manufacturing Consent, Professionally

This was not a spontaneous error; it was a cleverly crafted campaign.

The testimony was orchestrated by Hill & Knowlton, one of the largest public relations firms in the world. They were hired by Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a front group funded by the Kuwaiti government. The cost of the PR campaign exceeded $10 million.

Their mission was explicit: sway American public opinion in favor of military intervention.

They understood a simple and dangerous truth. Facts can be argued with. Images shut down thinking. And stories about dead babies don’t invite questions—they demand submission.

And our political system complied.

The Scale of the Consequence

On January 17, 1991, the United States and its allies launched a full-scale assault on Iraq. Over the course of the conflict, approximately 88,500 tons of bombs were dropped. Civilian infrastructure was obliterated. Water treatment plants were destroyed. Power grids collapsed. Sanctions followed that would contribute to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more, many of them children.

Kuwait was “liberated.” Its oil wells were secured. American dominance in the region was cemented. And a precedent was set: if the story is horrifying enough, verification becomes optional.

The lie had done its job.

The human cost did not end when the bombs stopped falling. Tens of thousands of U.S. service members who deployed during Operation Desert Storm (including myself and my late father) returned home carrying what would later be known as Desert Storm Syndrome, or Gulf War Illness—a chronic, debilitating condition marked by fatigue, neurological damage, muscle pain, respiratory problems, memory loss, and autoimmune disorders.

These men and women were exposed to a toxic cocktail of burning oil well smoke, depleted uranium, nerve agent alarms, experimental vaccines, pesticides, and chemical weapons fallout, often without proper warning or protection. For years, their suffering was dismissed as stress, psychosomatic illness, or coincidence. Claims were denied. Records were classified. Accountability was avoided. Many veterans spent decades fighting their own government for recognition, care, and basic honesty. Some died waiting. If the incubator lie helped start the war, the abandonment of sick veterans revealed how disposable the truth—and the troops—had become once the mission was declared “successful.”

The Real Scandal Is Not Just the Lie

It would be comforting to believe this was an aberration. A one-time failure. A lesson learned.

It was not.

The Nayirah testimony revealed a system where emotional manipulation replaces democratic deliberation, where public relations firms act as unelected architects of war, and where government officials repeat claims they never bother to confirm.

No one was punished. No hearings were held to investigate how Congress and the press were so thoroughly misled. The architects of the deception went on to lucrative careers. The journalists who failed to ask basic questions kept their platforms.

And the American public was trained—again—to associate skepticism with cruelty.

Why This Still Matters

Every time we are told that questioning a narrative is “dangerous,” remember Nayirah. Every time we are shown an atrocity story just in time to justify missiles, remember Nayirah. Every time dissent is framed as sympathy for evil, remember Nayirah.

This was not just a lie about incubators. It was a rehearsal for future wars. It was a proof of concept.

Weapons can destroy cities. Stories can mobilize nations.

And until the public demands accountability—not just from foreign adversaries, but from its own government and media—the same machinery will be used again. Different country. Different villain. Same script.

The anniversary of Operation Desert Storm should not be a celebration. It should be a warning.