Dispatch from a Kuwaiti Bunker
(Tychon is an Latimes.com multimedia producer on assignment in the Gulf.)
KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT--Tonight, journalists once again dropped what they were doing, grabbed their gas masks and rushed down the steps into the Sheraton bomb shelter.
Outside, sirens blared into an empty street. It was a scene repeated at hotels and gathering places throughout the city-- men and women thrown together, peering at one another through the black circles in their gas masks.
Some chatted, others whispered. Some sat quietly, staring into the eyes of masked strangers. Or they whistled past the graveyard with off-color jokes.
The masks made them aware of their own rhythmic breathing. They remembered stories of chemical weapons and dirty bombs. And there was a single thought in common: “Will this be the one?”
The warning passed in a few minutes. And we filed out.
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