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Official: Basra 'Largely' Under Coalition Control

Iraq's second largest city is now "largely under coalition control," according to the official. Basra has 1.3 million people and is a key economic center in the south of Iraq.

The defense official said that allied forces are now engaged in "mopping up operations" in and around the city, as they clean out remaining pockets of Iraqi resistance.

posted by blaster at 11:05 PM

 
U.S. Troops Attacked in Kuwait; 10 Wounded

Initial reports were that this was a terrorist attack. However, it is being reported on the air right now that this may be an "internal" incident - could be a fragging. An officer tent was the target, and an enlisted soldier is being sought. This soldier was reported as "acting strangely" prior to the incident.

UPDATE: Fox is reporting that the missing soldier was found in a bunker with a gunshot wound, and another non-military person is in custody, too. The soldier is a Muslim American. Hard to say whether this was a fragging or a terrorist attack with inside help. Also, the number of wounded is now listed as 13.

FURTHER UPDATE: Back to looking like a fragging. From CNN:

Military criminal investigators said the suspect was recently reprimanded for insubordination and was told he would stay behind when his unit left camp for Iraq, according to Time magazine correspondent Jim Lacey, who is accompanying the unit.

Lacey said he was told by a military commander the soldier lobbed three grenades into the operations center and yelled, "You're under attack!" A major told Lacey he saw a grenade roll by him before the explosion.

posted by blaster at 8:43 PM

 
ArmyTimes FrontlinePhotos
Updated daily.
posted by Bill at 6:24 PM

 
Long-range bombers to deliver air power's heaviest blows

..."It's a fundamental change in what heavy bombers do. You've gone from World War II with heavy bombers burning down (entire) cities to heavy bombers now blowing up (individually chosen) buildings," Pike said of the precision afforded by GPS-guided bombs.

While bombers have the capability to conduct missions from home bases in the United States through aerial refueling during the flight, that won't be likely in this war, experts say, as all the planes to be used in the Iraq campaign have bases in the region...
posted by Bill at 4:44 PM

 
'You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious' (Guardian)

posted by Bill at 4:40 PM

 
Lucky Break for Jordan (UPI)

...A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill...

posted by Bill at 4:37 PM

 
Aerial Pounding Intended to Push Iraq's Government Toward Brink (NYT: Michael Gordon)

The thunderous airstrikes the United States military carried out tonight were intended to destroy Saddam Hussein's ability to control his forces and to push his government to the brink of collapse.

This is the attack that Pentagon officials have talked about for months: a strike that would be concentrated and devastating. More than 1,300 cruise missiles and bombs were used, and most of the targets were in and around Baghdad.

Inside the war room of the land command center, tonight's targets were marked with red triangles on a classified laptop. The area on the west side of the Tigris River near the Presidential Palace compound and other major power centers was a maze of red.

posted by Bill at 4:23 PM

 
Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy (NYT Op-ed: Edward C. Luck)

The eerie whine of precision-guided missiles over Baghdad contrasts with the equally shrill but increasingly muddled debate over the legality of the conflict. The trans-Atlantic war of words has laid bare competing visions of the purpose of the United Nations Security Council. Was the council meant just to pass judgment on the use of force — or to organize its collective use? Given the imbalance of power between the United States and the rest of the world, should it embrace American military might — or seek to constrain it?

posted by Bill at 4:19 PM

 
Au Revoir, Petite France (WSJ: Paul Johnson)
In one blow, Chirac shattered the U.N., NATO and the EU.

Last weekend's Azores summit foreshadowed a new era in geopolitics. It reminds us of the old wartime meetings between Roosevelt and Churchill in which the two leaders planned the next phase of the war against Hitler. As President Bush left the meeting assured of a French veto of the resolution, the world finally moved on from the stalemate of the previous two weeks at the U.N.

We shall see much more of this kind of diplomacy in the future, in which deals are struck on a bilateral or trilateral basis to suit the needs of the moment. Roosevelt and Churchill's meetings were often attended by one or more government heads, whose presence was deemed relevant to the subjects discussed.

posted by Bill at 4:15 PM

 
Blame America first vs. put America first (Cal Thomas)

At the daily White House press briefing Tuesday (March 18), presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked about comments by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle on war with Iraq. Fleischer said that Daschle has been "inconsistent," first supporting a policy of force to oust Saddam Hussein and then opposing it.

A look at the record supports Fleischer's accurate, if charitable, characterization of Daschle as "inconsistent." Speaking to a labor union audience last Monday (March 17), Daschle said, "I'm saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war; saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic efforts that was so critical for our country."

posted by Joe at 3:19 PM

 
Coalition Opens Huge Bombing Campaign In Baghdad...

American-led coalition forces began an intense bombing campaign in Iraq tonight, blasting targets in Baghdad and at least two other cities to the north, Pentagon officials said.

Live television reports from Baghdad beginning about 9 p.m. local time (1 p.m. E.S.T.) showed the city illuminated by huge explosions and Iraqi antiaircraft rounds. The antiarcraft fire diminished as the severity of the bombing increased. Large blasts were also reported today to the west of Baghdad...

posted by Bill at 1:36 PM

 
Paul Wolfowitz: Remarks to VFW, March 11, 2003
posted by Bill at 12:25 PM

 
Dumb and Dumber (NRO: Victor Davis Hanson)

Conventional ignorance about the present war: [The worldwide jihad myth; the so-called neoconservative conspiracy; the legend of international wisdom; the fraud of antiwar morality.]

So what is the truth?

We are presently watching the last hand in a long-drawn-out poker game. All the chips — the EU, NATO, the U.N., European anti-Americanism, French chauvinism, domestic opposition, the future of a democratic Iraq, the very nature of the Middle East, and of the war against terror itself — are now stacked on the table, up for grabs. As some of us once argued, it would have been far better and safer to go in last autumn; but war is full of irony, and so by forcing us to wait, our opponents have only upped the ante and may well lose all that they have so recklessly wagered.

If this war is immediate, quick, and successful, and results in the destruction of the Hussein regime and the liberation of its people, the world abroad will be made anew as we call in our markers. We will see either the reform — or perhaps the de facto end — of many flawed and hypocritical trans-national institutions we have known for a half-century. Then will follow the disgrace of our critics, the embarrassment of the utopian Left, and the sudden appearance of all sorts of European allies and Arab friends eager to mount our strong horse and ride down the remaining scattered Islamic terrorists.

And if we lose this last hand? We won't, partly because the consequences — as in any failed high-stakes gambit — would be so catastrophic that we simply cannot contemplate them all. And so we watch, as the beginning of the 21st-century global order rests in the hands of thousands of brave Americans now battling in the desert. God be with them.

posted by Bill at 10:28 AM

 
Bush Puts His Presidency on the Line (Newhouse: Analysis)

There's a reason that gambling has become the operative metaphor for taking the United States to war against Iraq. [Huh?] In doing so, George W. Bush is wagering his presidency...

At stake for Abraham Lincoln was the union itself. And had it not been for Gen. William T. Sherman delivering Atlanta a few weeks before the 1864 election, Lincoln might not have stayed in office to re-unify the fractured country. He may well have gone down as a failed president. Bush, too, believes he is on the right side of history...

"As we've waited, [Bush has] called in everybody's chips," [military historian Victor Davis] Hanson said of Bush. "Sitting on the table is the legitimacy of the European Union, the legitimacy of NATO, the legitimacy of the United Nations, the war against terror, the rebuilding of the Middle East, the anti-war opposition, and the Democratic opposition."

Hanson sees in Bush something of Union Army Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Impatient with an officer's report that Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was seizing the advantage at the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant rose to his feet and took his cigar out of his mouth. "Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do," Grant said. "Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do."

The president, Hanson says, is going with his "gut instinct that what he's doing is not only right, but is going to work -- and he is going to see it through"...

posted by Bill at 10:07 AM

 
A Matter of Temperament (Commentary)
The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, by David Frum. Reviewed by James Q. Wilson.

Character is destiny, according to the aphorism made famous by George Eliot in The Mill on the Floss; to judge from her own treatment of this claim, Eliot did not much approve of it. But the observation is hardly new. Heraclitus made it over two millennia earlier: “A man’s character is his fate.” I have often thought about this sentiment while trying to sort out my own views on the American presidency...

Bush, Frum concludes, is an unusual man. He has many human faults...but he is not a lightweight. Rather, Frum argues, he is an unfamiliar kind of heavyweight, a man with a strong vision and personal courage who is willing to take the high-risk option if that is what the security of the country requires. He is good without being weak, and a natural wartime leader.

Who would have thought it? No one who believes that the marks of a good leader, especially in wartime, are a talent for verbal sparring and the resource of a quick memory. But I suspect the American public has known it all along. During campaign seasons, they watch the presidential debates not to learn who among the candidates can most easily identify an obscure world leader or most accurately describe a piece of legislation but rather for an insight into character and temperament. David Frum confirms that they are right to do so.

posted by Bill at 9:13 AM

 
The world according to Donald Rumsfeld (Mark Steyn)

A headline in Friday's Washington Post captures perfectly the Rumsfeld Effect: "Anti-U.S. Sentiment Abates in South Korea; Change Follows Rumsfeld Suggestion of Troop Cut."..."The anti-American demonstrations here have suddenly gone poof," began the Post reporter in Seoul. "The official line from the South Korean government is: Yankees stay here."...If you want to "re-shape the debate," as the cliche has it, all you need is a casual aside from Rummy...That's Rumsfeld's function -- to take the polite fictions and drag them back to the real world...

Rumsfeld fans: read the whole column.

posted by Bill at 8:00 AM

 
France in a Trance (WSJ Opinion)
From an American in Paris as the battle begins.

...[T]he start of the war just might liven up the discourse, spurring a real discussion of what this war means and whether France acted rightly. There are signs the French might be waking up from their trance. The news on TF1 last night examined the history of Saddam's brutal regime and the likelihood that Americans would be welcomed as liberators. And some media outlets now look at the consequences for France of its U.N. stance. "Have They Gone Overboard?" asked the cover of Le Point, featuring an unflattering picture of the president and his prime minister. For a long time, in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, no one dared question the Emperor about his new suit--but finally someone does.

posted by Bill at 7:23 AM

 
Note to the Security Council: Get Involved (NYT Op-ed)

Saddam Hussein may try to slow the advance of United States forces on Baghdad by creating a humanitarian emergency, which American troops would be compelled to contain. The United Nations can help shorten the war by renewing its most significant Iraqi humanitarian assistance program — a program that was suspended this week after the debacle in the Security Council.

posted by Bill at 7:11 AM

 
Analysis: Swift, Risky Attack by Land; Surprise in Mind (NYT: Gordon)

American commanders, beginning the ground war earlier than expected, sought to reclaim an element of surprise today after the war's unexpected start. The swift land assault today by lead elements of Marine, Army and British forces was in striking contrast to the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when allied forces began their offensive after a 39-day air campaign. It was also different in another important way: the degree of risk. When the American military began ground attacks in 1991, it had a much larger force and a more limited objective: ousting the Iraqi forces from Kuwait. This time, the force is smaller and Saddam Hussein has his back against the wall. Allied military commanders are well aware that it is difficult to deter the potentially brutal ripostes of a regime they have publicly vowed to destroy.

posted by Bill at 7:08 AM

 
Army Times Iraq Reporting
posted by Bill at 11:26 PM

 
Warriors at Work (WaPo: Michael Kelly)

MAIN HEADQUARTERS, 3rd INFANTRY DIVISION, Kuwait -- When President Bush began the blunt, brief speech that set the last clock running for war against Saddam Hussein, at 4 a.m. Kuwait time, a couple dozen officers and soldiers gathered around a television in the corner of a big double tent in the middle of 20,000 troops spread across 10 square miles of sand here. When Bush finished, there was no cheering, and everyone quietly turned and went back to work...

posted by Bill at 11:25 PM

 
Addressing the Naysayers (WaPo: George Will)

The president demonstrated Monday night that he understands a tested political axiom: If you do not like the news, make some of your own. He had allowed for pointless diplomacy to proceed too long, thereby dissipating some of his principal asset, his aura of serene decisiveness. He did this March 6 with his peculiar presidential speech disguised as a news conference, and then with the strange hours in the Azores. So Monday night he delivered perhaps the first presidential speech directed almost entirely at a foreign audience. At several such audiences, actually...

posted by Bill at 11:05 PM

 
On the move
Watching Fox, 3d Infantry Division is in Iraq now.

posted by blaster at 10:35 PM

 
Now reported on Fox
Boots on ground in north and west of Iraq. That's all they were cleared by the Pentagon to say.

posted by blaster at 9:54 PM

 
Blood for oil? (Jerry Taylor - Cato)

Is the coming war with Iraq about oil when all is said and done? The anti-war movement seems to think so. I am not so sure.
.....
In sum, the argument that the impending war with Iraq is fundamentally about oil doesn't add up. While everyone loves a nice, tidy political morality play, I doubt there is one to be found here.

posted by Joe at 11:48 AM

 
The decapitation strike
An MSNBC military commentator described how the strike went - he said that F117's dropped 4 GBU27 laser guided bombs - these are 2,000 lb penetrators into a bunker to "crack it open, " then TLAM's (Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles) hit the opened up bunker with regular HE warheads, and then, for good measure, dropped submunition warheads (lots of little bomblets) on top of that.

GBU-27

TLAM

posted by blaster at 9:50 AM

 
John Burns on Iraq
Andrew Sullivan: Here's the great New York Times' reporter's comments on PBS last night:

Iraqis have suffered beyond, I think, the common understanding of the United States from the repression of the past 30 years here. And many, many Iraqis are telling us now, not always in the whispers he have heard in the past but now in quite candid conversations, that they are waiting for America to come and bring them liberty. It's very hard though for anybody to understand this. It can only be understood in terms of the depth of the repression here. It has to be said that this not universal of course... All I can tell you is that as every reporter who has come over here will attest to this, there is the most extraordinary experience of the last few days has been a sudden breaking of the ice here, with people in every corner of life coming forward to tell us that they understand what America is about in this. They are very, very fearful of course of the bombing, of damage to Iraq's infrastructure. They are very concerned about the kind of governance, the American military governance, that they will come under afterward. Can I just say that there is also no doubt - no doubt - that there are many, many Iraqis who see what is about to happen here as the moment of liberation.

[I]t's good to see this fine reporter unconstrained by the New York Times' attempt to spin this war against the United States.

posted by Bill at 8:10 AM

 
French Connection II (NYT: Safire)

What will the world discover, after the war is over, about which countries secretly helped Saddam obtain components for terror weapons? Last week, I wrote that French brokerage was involved in the illicit transfer of the chemical HTBP, a rubbery base for a rocket propellant, from a Chinese company through Syria to Iraq...

posted by Bill at 7:57 AM

 
NYT Front

Bush Orders Start of War on Iraq
Hussein Exhorts His People to Draw Arms Against Invaders
U.S. Troops Intercept Scud Missile Fired by Iraq
Iraq Launches Scud Attack Against U.S. Troops
Day of Waiting and Wondering Ends With Word From President
Watching Intently as a War Is Born 6,000 Miles Away
Warning of Difficulty, Bush Says Americans Will Disarm Foe
Military Analysis: Setting the Stage (Michael Gordon)

posted by Bill at 7:49 AM

 
Text of President Bush's Speech

Key words:

Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures and we will accept no outcome but victory.

posted by blaster at 11:48 PM

 
The War Has Started

LONDON
19/03/03 - War on Iraq section

The war has started
By Robert Fox, Defence Correspondent and David Taylor, Evening Standard

British and American troops were involved in fierce fighting near Iraq's main port today as the war to topple Saddam Hussein began.

The firefight broke out near Basra as men of the Special Boat Service targeted the strategically vital city and the oilfields in southern Iraq.

At the same time allied troops were flooding into the demilitarised zone on the Iraqi border with Kuwait 40 miles away to take up positions for an all-out invasion.

Cruise missiles were also loaded onto B52 bombers at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a clear sign that the bombardment of Baghdad could be only hours away.


posted by Jack at 2:57 PM

 
Stix Nix Blix Trix!

Mickey Kaus: The [headline] that was waiting to happen! The peg: A Gallup Poll shows the American heartland -- rejecting the opinion of urban elites! -- supports by a margin of 66% to 30% Bush's decision to cut short the controversial U.N. inspections and issue an anti-Saddam ultimatum.
posted by Bill at 11:48 AM

 
Madder Than MAD (TCS: Lee Harris)

In my essay "Our World Historical Gamble," I argued that we are facing a geopolitical challenge that requires a whole new way of thinking...

posted by Bill at 11:15 AM

 
ABC's Crusade Against "Arrogant" American Power (MRC)

Andrew Sullivan: A useful report from the conservative Media Research Center on the differences between ABC News' coverage of the build-up to war with Iraq and that of CBS News and NBC.

posted by Bill at 10:44 AM

 
DELTA DAWN: What's that Moustache You Got On? Commando force poised to track and kill Saddam U.S. intelligence focused on finding Iraqi leader

KUWAIT CITY -- Armed with high-tech weapons, night-vision goggles and pictures of their targets, small teams of Delta Force commandos will soon descend on the outskirts of Baghdad to begin the most anticipated mission of the war: capturing or, if possible, killing Saddam Hussein.

Teams of the Army's elite 360-man force have been assigned to hunt down Saddam, his sons Qusai and Uday, and at least a dozen of Iraq's top military and political leaders, according to senior Pentagon officials with direct knowledge of the mission.

posted by Jack at 10:20 AM

 
Military May Microwave Iraqi Electronic Circuits (WaPo)

A war with Iraq could allow the United States to debut a new -- and perhaps revolutionary -- class of weapons that can cripple an enemy's ability to fight without harming people or destroying buildings. They are known collectively as "high-powered microwave weapons" (HPM). They use bursts of electromagnetic energy, delivered by low-impact bombs or "ray gun"-like devices, to disable or destroy the electronics that control everything from an enemy's radar to its laptops. Although the pulse can easily incapacitate or even burn out microchips or circuitry, it is weak enough so that humans might not even know they had been attacked until their computers started to crash.

posted by Bill at 10:07 AM

 
Pentagon's 'weapons of mass persuasion' hit Iraq army (Washington Times)

With war in Iraq imminent, the Pentagon is stepping up efforts to convince that country's military commanders and soldiers not to fight.The message to the 350,000-strong Iraqi army from leaflet bombs dropped by aircraft and airborne radio broadcasts is simple: Surrender or die.The propaganda effort may pay off once war starts, but the Iraqi army already is demoralized, U.S. officials said...

posted by Bill at 10:04 AM

 
Quick Collapse of Iraqi Military Is 'Very Real Likelihood' (WaPo)

The highest ranking U.S. military intelligence official said yesterday that there is "a very real likelihood" that Iraq's military could quickly collapse, citing evidence that one of the most extensive "psychological operations" campaigns ever waged has triggered movements by civilians and military personnel.
"We're prepared for a situation where the Iraqi military offers stiff resistance and is organized in its execution of military operations," said Vice Adm. Lowell E. "Jake" Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). "There is a very real likelihood, though, that resistance could collapse very quickly."

posted by Bill at 10:00 AM

 
From Commanders, Final Words of Purpose and Caution (WaPo)

Commanders of the 3rd Infantry Division stood before their troops in the Kuwaiti desert today and imparted final words of resolve and caution before sending them to lead an anticipated U.S. invasion of Iraq. Col. David Perkins, commander of the division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, told assembled soldiers that President Bush "has given Saddam Hussein and his regime 48 hours to get out of town or face military action. We are that military action."

posted by Bill at 9:55 AM

 
Soldiers and Equipment Head for Iraq Border in Vast Formation (NYT)

Across 5,000 square miles of Kuwaiti desert...The 130,000-member mechanized army formed a broad arc of thousands of vehicles, shoulder to shoulder in a sprawling phalanx facing north...In the front of the formations, engineering battalions wheeled their bulldozers and heavy equipment into position to breach the ditches and earthen berms that lay between the army and the Iraqi desert...military officials said American Special Operations forces had deployed from their bases on secret missions into Iraq, signaling that the invasion was imminent...

posted by Bill at 9:51 AM

 
Commando force poised to track and kill Saddam (USA Today)

Armed with high-tech weapons, night-vision goggles and pictures of their targets, small teams of Delta Force commandos will soon descend on the outskirts of Baghdad to begin the most anticipated mission of the war: capturing or killing Saddam Hussein. Teams of the Army's elite 360-man force have been assigned to hunt and, if necessary, kill Saddam, his sons Qusai and Uday, and at least a dozen of Iraq's top military and political leaders...

posted by Bill at 9:38 AM

 
Early teams to seek hidden arms

The Pentagon has deployed new tactical units called "mobile exploitation teams," state-of-the-art equipment and novel tactics to find and survey what officials estimate are at least 600 sites considered most likely to be hiding prohibited weapons.

This will be an important part of victory - showing that we were right. And it proves we are going there to disarm.
posted by blaster at 12:58 AM

 
What's the future if we don't act? (Slate: Christopher Hitchens)

There has been a certain eeriness to the whole Iraq debate, from the moment of its current inception after Sept. 11, 2001, right through the phony period of protracted legalism that has just drawn to a close...

[Thanks to Laurie Mylroie for tip.]
posted by Bill at 12:12 AM

 
Be glad for Bush's resolve (John Leo)

The Bush administration has made mistakes, but it's an illusion to think that a different style, or a different president, would have averted the current U.N. disaster. Bush conducted no "rush to war." He was asked to go to Congress and to the United Nations, and he did. Getting the U.N. Security Council to pass Resolution 1441 last November was considered a political triumph. It called for Iraq to disarm immediately and completely.

But who knew that the word of France was good for less than four months? As Andrew Sullivan writes, "If the French refuse to enforce a resolution they signed, why is that a sign of incompetence on the part of the Bush administration?" When the Security Council reneges on a last-chance, disarm-or-else resolution shortly after the ink dries, it is staking a heavy claim to irrelevance.

posted by Joe at 10:48 PM

 
What Iraq's soldiers told us

Since the recent capture of al-Qaeda chieftain Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, talking heads and media pundits have speculated on the various means the CIA might use to "break" Osama bin Laden's operations chief. One recent Wall Street Journal article offered up a tantalizing array of techniques, all alleged to be permissible under international law.

Interrogators, the authors suggested, might force captives to stand in "stress positions" for extended periods of time, deprive them of sleep, withhold food and water, play on phobias such as fear of rats or dogs, or humiliate their prisoner by stripping him or forcibly shaving his beard. One unnamed intelligence officer was quoted that "a little bit of smacky-face" would be allowed. That same evening two of three major television news broadcasts featured "experts" (an attorney and a university professor) touting such tactics.

All of this may titillate the American public, but my experience in interrogating prisoners in Vietnam, Panama and the Gulf War was precisely the opposite.

posted by Jack at 9:21 PM

 
We're not all peaceniks (Guardian: David Aaronovitch)

...the impression has been given, on the BBC in particular, that public and expert opinion is strongly and almost exclusively opposed to military action. This expectation has entered the cultural stratum that the majority of broadcasters exist in, and so dominates that it has become that most dangerous of wisdoms - not so much orthodox, as axiomatic...The consequence of this has been to imagine a country in which just about everyone, bar some newspapers and most politicians, is opposed to war. Yet today's poll for the Guardian has the gap between pros and antis at just 6% in favour of the latter. So tell me, do you think that the proportions have been 38% to 44% when discovering the views of the British people? And if not, why not?...

posted by Bill at 12:01 PM

 
Transcript of President Bush's Speech on Iraq, March 17
posted by Bill at 10:16 AM

 
When America Left Peace to France (WSJ: Robert Bartley)

The League of Nations once acted like the United Nations is acting now...

In the end, President Woodrow Wilson scuttled the treaty he'd negotiated at Versailles, urging Democratic senators to vote against its ratification. He preferred no treaty, and no League of Nations, to one including the reservations the Senate had attached at the behest of Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge. So the United States opted out, leaving peacekeeping to other powers, in particular France, cheek by jowl with a seething Germany.

The conventional wisdom, of course, is that the League was defeated by the "isolationists." This breed did indeed exist, led by William Borah of Idaho; these "irreconcilables" joined Wilson's Democrats in voting down the treaty. By contrast, Senator Lodge, a worldly Massachusetts aristocrat, had been a powerful voice for the Spanish-American War and the annexation of the Philippines. He was no isolationist, but what today we would call a unilateralist...

posted by Bill at 12:27 AM

 
48 hours

That's it.
posted by blaster at 8:22 PM

 
U.S., British forces are 'ready today' for invasion Lack of northern front could lead to more allied and civilian deaths

This point is not often mentioned. The possibility that the Turks, now massed on their border, will take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to move to the contested oil fields in Northern Iraq. Then negotiate from a position of occupation after the war is over. Remember what happened to the important airfield complex in Kosovo, when the Russians bluffed the Brits out of possession?




posted by Jack at 2:28 PM

 
MilitaryCity: Order Of Battle

About 220,000 U.S. troops are in the Middle East, preparing for war with Iraq. [This] map provides a detailed look at U.S. forces in the region, and where they are...MilitaryCity.com will continue to update this map as troops are given orders, deployed or moved.

posted by Bill at 8:17 AM

 
StrategyPage Resources

Iraq War Map, Combat Units Available, War Plans, Daily Coverage of Iraq, Discussion Boards Iraq, Iraq Timeline, Iraq Dissident Areas, Iraqi Missile Range Map...

posted by Bill at 7:18 AM

 
Photo Gallery: American and British troops preparing for action in the Gulf

InstaPundit recommends: "There are a lot of very well-done pictures here, and looking through the gallery will serve as a useful reminder of what the troops are having to put up with. And of who our friends are. (Via Stephen Green)."

posted by Bill at 4:26 PM