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Ten Years After War, Iraq Defiant, Kuwait Bouncing Back

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DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was 10 years ago today that Iraqi troops marched into Kuwait, setting the wheels of the Persian Gulf War into motion. Despite its defeat in the war, Iraq remains defiant. But the anniversary is a somber day for Kuwait.

Our Nic Robertson joins us by phone. He is in Kuwait City today.

Nic, here we are 10 years later. Not too much has changed. Saddam Hussein is still in power and the Kuwaitis still need outside help to keep their country secure.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed they do. Just to bolster their defenses, they have been spending a huge amount of money, much money that they've invested in the past several decades from their huge oil resource here, and they spent a lot of that on rebuilding this city and rebuilding their armed forces. There's very little evidence these days that the country ever went through an occupation and had a large part of its infrastructure and military destroyed. But a somber day, indeed, here -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And yet you still have thousands of U.S. soldiers who have to be there to keep the peace, isn't that right?

ROBERTSON: That's right. There are about -- approximately 4,000 U.S. troops forward deployed, as it's called, that are either inside Kuwait or on ships, readily available to come in at a moment's notice. And very much, when you talk to Kuwait's defense minister or information minister, they best talk in terms of the globalization of the situation in Iraq, that is very -- that Iraq's defenses very much rely on outside help the way. The way they designed the structure of their defense forces is to do lots of training with British troops, with American troops and other troops, and to know that they need to call in reinforcements just as soon as they see trouble on the horizon.

The last time they saw that was 1994. The U.S., United States ran up its force in the country at that time to head off a buildup of Iraqi troops on the other side of the border in Iraq.

But that is the situation that Kuwaitis finds themselves in, very much dependent on the outside, on the rest of the world for support.

KAGAN: Ten years later, give us an idea what life is like for Kuwaitis. You have this Western influence because you have all these Americans there. And they had the influx of British and Americans to help them win the war. Do you see evidence of that invasion as well?

ROBERTSON: Indeed, one of the things that -- the advantages that Kuwait has over many other nation that's rebuilt after a war is that it has had a huge amount of money to put into rebuilding. There are brand new shopping malls here that are full of stores, Western outlets. They look and feel very much when you are in these malls just like a mall in London or in New York. They're very modern, they're full of people doing shopping, and people not only dressed in the traditional dress of the Gulf states of a robe for men and a veil and a headdress for women, but there are people there in jeans and T- shirt, young men, young girls in jeans in T-shirts. It's a very modern feel in Kuwait these days. The old mixes with the new.

But the Western influence many people here say is something that they recognize that needs to happen, that they're ready to embrace, that they're ready to work with. They see Kuwait as having something to offer the rest of the world, and they're ready to take on many of the Western influences.

They say that they do have a red line on certain issues, such as alcohol. Islam forbids the use of alcohol. They don't want to see alcohol coming into the country. And there are other traditions and religious edicts from Islam that forbid relationships outside of marriage and such things, and these they say that they will hold very steadfastly to. But it is a very sort of open society compared to many other Gulf states here in Kuwait.

KAGAN: Nic Robertson, reporting to us from Kuwait City, thank you very much.

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