Unlike Panama, Iraq had a substantial army that could not be subdued in a mere weekend of fighting. Hussein was too far away from US soil, too rich with oil money, and too experienced in ruling through propaganda and terror to be dislodged through the psychological-warfare techniques of low-intensity conflict. Waging a war to push Iraq's invading army from Kuwait would cost billions of dollars and require an unprecedented, massive US military mobilization. The American public was notoriously reluctant to send its young into foreign battles on behalf of any cause. Selling war in the Middle East to the American people would not be easy. President H. W. Bush would need to convince Americans that former ally Saddam Hussein now embodied evil, and that the oil fiefdom of Kuwait was a struggling young democracy.

US Congressman Jimmy Hayes of Louisiana - a conservative Democrat who supported the Gulf War - later estimated that the government of Kuwait funded as many as 20 PR, law and lobby firms in its campaign to mobilize US opinion and force against Hussein. Participating firms included the Rendon Group, which received a retainer of $100,000 per month for media work, and Neill & Co., which received $50,000 per month for lobbying Congress. Sam Zakhem, a former US ambassador to the oil-rich gulf state of Bahrain, funneled $7.7 million in advertising and lobbying dollars through two front groups, the "Coalition for Americans at Risk" and the "Freedom Task Force." The Coalition prepared and placed TV and newspaper ads, and kept a stable of fifty speakers available for pro-war rallies and publicity events. Hill & Knowlton (H&K), then the world's largest public relations firm, served as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign. Its activities alone would have constituted the largest foreign-funded campaign ever aimed at manipulating American public opinion. Nine days after Saddam's army marched into Kuwait, the Emir's Kuwaiti government agreed to fund a contract under which Hill & Knowlton would represent "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," (CFK). Over the next six months, the Kuwaiti government channeled $11.9 million dollars to Citizens for a Free Kuwait, whose only other funding totaled $17,861 from 78 individuals. Virtually CFK's entire budget - $10.8 million - went to Hill & Knowlton in the form of fees.

On October 10, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by the first name of Nayirah, testified before Congress. Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential, it was said, and to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die." As part of H&K's initiative, the firm distributed a video news release of her moving testimony. It was aired on television stations throughout the country and the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles as well as talk radio show programs.

You are an employee of Hill & Knowlton for less than a year. It comes to your attention that Nayirah was in reality a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony to Congress. You also know that experts coached Nayirah to perform emotionally during her testimony. In addition, you know that she wasn't in Kuwait at the time she said she was in her testimony. Nevertheless, public opinion grows each day for a war with Iraq over Kuwait largely due to her story. What should you do?