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How long?

Ralph Peters answers:

No one can say exactly how long this war will take. But it is not going to be another Vietnam. No years of quagmire ahead. The attacks on our rear area by irregular forces are not signs of an endless struggle with guerrilla forces. That's utter nonsense.

Saddam's military shrinks by the day. Saddam's means of control are crumbling. His loyalists are dying in droves. And the atrocities the regime's terrorists are committing against their own people are not exactly winning domestic Iraqi support for Saddam and the kids.

posted by blaster at 9:14 PM

 
Saddam's Vietnam? (WSJ: BOTWT: James Taranto)

In the dreams of the anti-American left, every war is Vietnam. That conflict was their greatest--indeed, their only--triumph of the 20th century. A divided America lost its will to fight, and the people of South Vietnam lost their chance at freedom. Some folks positively lust for American defeat--Newsday reports Nicholas De Genova, a Columbia University anthropologist, told a campus "teach-in" that "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus"--while others reflexively reach for the Vietnam analogy every time America goes to war...

Eugene Volokh comments on the "teach-in" at Columbia.
posted by Bill at 9:49 AM

 
Editorial for Rocky Mountain News

IS IT WORTH IT?

I believe we will suffer 2,000 Americans killed in this war before it is over, and take 8-10,000 other casualties. Will it have been worth it?

This is the ultimate question for President Bush, and for all Americans. I have pondered this, while proudly following the success of the 7th Cavalry in Iraq under whose banner I fought in Korea as a young lieutenant 53 years ago.

The 7th Cavalry, in the first 5 days of this war made an incredible charge 200 miles from Kuwait toward Bagdhad. It captured a key bridge with a brilliant maneuver. Then in the largest ground engagement to that date, in a sandstorm at night, it defeated and killed from 300-500 Iraqis trying to destroy its bridgehead.

By the total war’s scale it was a small victory. But it proved to me just how well trained, equipped, led, and motivated are our young volunteer soldiers out of this spoiled society, even today.

But the performance of the armed hard core of the Iraqi regime promises winning will be hard. There is the willingness to fight by those loyal to Saddam Hussein. Their future will be very bleak when he is gone. They are breaking all the civilized rules of warfare in their fanaticism. They demonstrate the criminal willingness of their leaders to hide their soldiers right in the midst of their own innocent population. They threaten and even shoot their own conscripts if they won’t fight. It truly is an evil regime.

It is likely that the decisive last phase of this war will involve even nastier fighting inside Baghdad, much of it in places and under circumstances where all the power of our untouched Air Force cannot prevail without our killing innocent Iraqis.

The Hussein regime just might collapse suddenly, like a house of cards, with far fewer casualties. We cannot count on it.

But even if sudden collapse does not happen, and we suffer to the degree I predict, 10,000 casualties is not, on balance, that many by the measure of past wars. It only looks huge on television for a nation not used to sacrifice in war.

Such an observation may seem callous. But after spending 27 years as a Infantry officer, fighting up close and personal in two wars, I am a realist. There are no magic bullet for winning wars in teeming cities against the progeny of tyrants.

Americans may be shocked by instantaneous television showing the killing, the destruction, the treatment of our prisoners, and the gut wrenching knock on the door of dead soldier’s wives or mothers.

But that same television during the first Gulf War spoiled America’s expectations about war. Not only were our losses small, there were the lasting images of a war dominated by our virtually uncontested air power. And the war was emotionally sanitized by the video-game quality of pictures of our missiles hitting their targets.

Even some of our high civilian officials became convinced that the secret to winning all our future wars would be very high tech ‘shock and awe’ air power. They thought this in spite of the lessons of Germany and England which refused to be defeated by the massive bombing of WWII alone. Only Japan, faced with utter annihilation, bowed to our final bomb.

I cannot fault those who have done such a great job equipping, training and believing in our Air Force and Naval Aviation. For they learned one lesson of Desert Storm. That even when our Air Force can blow cities to kingdom come, the death of civilians is unacceptable to Americans and civilized people everywhere. We needed more precise bombs in order to inflict less unintended death and destruction. We achieved that goal incredibly well. But it is not enough.

Our enemies, now and in the future learned the same lesson. They can, and have, adjusted strategically by putting their soldiers where we cannot bomb them without killing civilians or destroying that which we came to save. They have even taken off their uniforms to deceive us. And there is no high tech device yet that can detect a man’s loyalty from 20 paces, much less 20,000 feet.

Only by coming face to face with our enemies by our always vulnerable foot soldiers - fighting inside closed and dangerous spaces, can we separate our enemies from our friends and the uninvolved. Only dangerous personal encounters by our lowest rank and least experienced young soldiers can lead us to make instant good American judgments whether to shoot or not a stranger who may extend either his hand or toss a grenade with it. And if we must shoot, only a thinking soldier, not robots, can shoot to kill with certainty in such close quarters while not injuring a woman and child standing close by.

So the penultimate question is, will it also be worth it to know that some of the 2,000 young American casualties died to insure that 50,000 innocent Iraqi civilians would not die also?

I found my own answer 53 years ago when I stood on top of Hill 347 in Korea, as a 7th Cavalry Company Commander. I had lost all 6 of my officers, and 154 of the men I loved - killed, wounded or missing. Only myself and 15 men were left standing after the battle. We suffered a toll in casualties that would not be tolerated today. But we won. And it was important.

For Hill 347 still stands today on the dividing line. South of Hill 347 is a free and prosperous, even if often ungrateful, nation. North of that hill is only fear, misery, and a tyrannical state.

Though I wept over the men I lost, I knew the price was worth it then. What may seem a costly victory in Iraq will be worth it now. For I also have faith that we have learned how to construct a peace, and transform a traumatized society, as we did in Japan almost 60 years ago.

On the Korean War monument in Washington is a saying: Freedom is Not Free

It never will be. So lets get on with this war.


David Hughes (Col, Ret) '50
Commander, Company K, 7th Cav, Korea
dave@oldcolo.com






posted by dave at 9:12 AM

 
Supplying the Enemy (NYT Editorial)

Whatever one may think of Russia's political opposition to the war in Iraq, no one denies Moscow's right to it. Supplying arms to Iraq is something else. Not only is this a clear violation of U.N. sanctions, but Russia has weapons that pose a lethal threat to U.S. and British soldiers. Those are exactly the kinds of weapons that the Bush administration has accused Russia — and now Syria — of supplying Iraq. Whether President Vladimir Putin chooses to acknowledge the sales or not, he would be well advised to make sure they are stopped right now...

...None of that, however, justifies providing Iraqis with means of killing Americans. This goes beyond political calculation, and beyond pique. Mr. Putin must understand that if Russian arms are reaching Iraq by any route, and are putting American men and women in harm's way, it is simply not enough to declare that he is not responsible, or to pretend it is not happening. Many Americans may share the Russian objections to this war, but no Americans will tolerate or forgive having an American tank blown up by a Russian missile.

posted by Bill at 8:00 AM

 
Tipping Point (WSJ Editorial)
What it will take to topple Saddam and his sons.

The most important lesson we've learned in the first week of the Iraq war is that it's harder to kill a regime than it is to defeat an army. The U.S. did the latter in the Gulf War, but we'll achieve the former only when enough Iraqis are convinced that Saddam Hussein's reign of terror truly is finished.

Compared with any conflict except the Gulf or Afghanistan wars, the achievements of allied forces in the past nine days would be thought remarkable. They have charged to within 50 miles of Baghdad, poised to engage elite Iraqi units. They dominate the air, to the point that our planes can kill anything that moves...There has not been anything close to a single allied defeat...The main disappointment is that Saddam's regime has not quickly fallen. His Baath tentacles have a tighter hold on more Iraqis than many hoped...proving to be ruthless and opportunistic. So it will take more time, more troops and more force to free that country from those clutches...

posted by Bill at 6:02 PM

 
History or Hysteria? Rumor and Buzz (NRO: Victor Davis Hanson)

Instantly televised images are broadcast with no in-depth analysis. A national television audience sighs and cheers second-to-second — not unlike the mercurial Athenians lined up on the shore of the Great Harbor at Syracuse, who in dejection and euphoria watched their fleet lose, win, and lose in the sea battle against the Sicilians.

But rather than trying to digest and analyze the tempo of battle, our vulture pundits instead regurgitate rumor and buzz — which are usually refuted by the next minute’s events. The subtext throughout seems to be disappointment that the war so far has lasted seven rather than two days.

Reporters at the beginning of the week were hysterically railing that Basra — cut off and surrounded — was not yet taken. A voice on NPR told us that after three days there would be “no food or water” — as if we had not cut off the power, water, and bridges at Baghdad in 1991 for 44 days, as if Marines getting shot at had electricity in the field. Things happen in war. Surely a temporary interruption in service is not so high a price to pay for lasting freedom...

posted by Bill at 4:06 PM

 
We Can't Be PC on the Battlefield (Newsday: Walter J. Boyne)
A retired Air Force colonel, is the author of several books on modern warfare.

The war in Iraq has been fought with an unprecedented degree of precision and a laudable emphasis on avoiding collateral damage that might hurt the Iraqi people. But time has just about run out for this kind of politically correct warfare. Our concern about civilian casualties plays precisely into Saddam Hussein's planning...

posted by Bill at 3:52 PM

 
Fear at home, distrust of U.S. paralyze Iraqis (Trudy Rubin)

As in a sandstorm, it's hard to fathom what is really happening in the battle for southern Iraq.
U.S. officials had predicted that the Shiite Muslims of southern Iraq would rise up and greet invading U.S. forces with sweets and flowers. The south has suffered horribly under Saddam Hussein's misrule.

But no uprising has happened.

I talked about why with several Iraqi Shiite exiles who are in touch with fellow Shiites inside. What they told me holds important lessons for U.S. forces during - and after - this war.

posted by Joe at 2:23 PM

 
Blair's New Confidence (Times, London)

...For the Prime Minister, in the past few months, has grown up immeasurably. He seems to have undergone the transformation that many men, particularly oldest sons, experience when their father dies. John Mortimer describes the process in Clinging to the Wreckage: “Sudden freedom, growing up, the end of dependence, the step into the sunlight where no one’s taller than you and you’re in no one’s shadow.”

When Mr Blair won power, he seemed like a boy pretending to be a man. He had no experience of even the lowest rung of ministerial office. It didn’t help that the youngest premier for more than a century looked even younger than he was.

As experience has taken the place of innocence, a new Blair has emerged. Approaching 50, and with two election victories to his name, he has cast off the insecurities of youth. Responsibility for war has turned him into a sombre but secure adult. Many traits that characterised his first term are evaporating...

Tip from Andrew Sullivan.
posted by Bill at 12:14 PM

 
1st ID to move into Northern Iraq

The cargo planes returned to the airfield empty, and the Army will now begin to load military equipment -- including tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers -- onto the planes to bring them into northern Iraq, Nettleton said.

[...]

The 2,000-strong 173rd Airborne Brigade is based in Vicenza, Italy, and the 1st Battalion, 63rd Armor, which is bringing in its armored vehicles, is based in Bilsek, Germany.

I think they mean Vilseck.

posted by blaster at 10:28 PM

 
RIP: Daniel Patrick Moynihan

NYT Obit: Former Senator From New York, Dies at 76

George Will: A Beautiful Mind

David Boder: Mourned as Influential Statesman
Quoting Michael Barone: "The nation's best thinker among politicians since Lincoln and its best politician among thinkers since Jefferson."

A Singular Politician and Thinker (WSJ: Michael Barone)
America has never had anyone in public life with the blazing originality of mind of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Such originality cannot be entirely explained: It is the product of an intellect and a character that are unique. Yet I think it owed something to the fact that Pat Moynihan was always in some sense an outsider--a boy who was raised by a single mother when most children grew up in two-parent families; a Catholic who did not attend, as most Catholics of his generation did, Catholic schools; an Irishman in the academy, most of whose colleagues were WASPs or Jews; a Democrat in the Nixon and Ford administrations; a diplomat whose plain speaking was deeply abhorrent to Foggy Bottom; a senator whose range of interests and intellectual productivity far exceeded those of his colleagues. He saw the world differently from the rest of us, and often got us to see it his way, in part because he stood in a slightly different place...

posted by Bill at 7:09 PM

 
CountryWatch: Iraq
News, general information on 192 countries.

Thanks to John Greiman for tip.
posted by Bill at 4:55 PM

 
State Department Electronic Subscriptions
You can automatically receive via email full texts of selected U.S. Department of State documents and publications that provide key official information on U.S. foreign policy...

Thanks to Paul Adams for tip.
posted by Bill at 4:21 PM

 
Embedded with the 3rd ID (Michael Kelly)

March 26, 2003 - WITH THE 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION, Southern Iraq - The planners of this war considered a range of scenarios. At the most optimistic, they hoped that that the imminent threat of invasion would trigger the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. At the next most rosy level, they thought a regime collapse would follow an invasion in a matter of days. On the next rung was the idea that the American advance would be met by little armed resistance, which would allow for a swift advance, and a possibly hard but brief battle with the Republican Guard's Medina Division south of Baghdad.

What actually happened in the first five days was a surprise, and made the American advance significantly more difficult and dangerous.
----------
It has always been the hope of the American war planners to avoid Iraq's cities, so as to minimize both American and Iraqi casualties. But there are doubts. "I think these guys are going to keep coming out and harassing us," said Blount. "I think eventually we're going to have to go in there and kill them. I think we will have to kill them unless we can get rid of the top guy in Baghdad."

posted by Joe at 2:19 PM

 
No cakewalk (Robert Novak)

U.S. general officers I have questioned over the last year were angry that anybody -- particularly an official adviser -- should spread the impression this would not be a real war, with killing and dying. Nevertheless, the cakewalk image took hold among some of the strongest hawks in Congress and in the public mind. That has led to widespread surprise and dismay in beholding what Rumsfeld accurately told Russert: "A war is a war. It's a brutal thing."
---------
"We have never done something like this with this modest a force at such a distance from its bases," retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a division commander in the first Gulf War, told the BBC Monday, contending Rumsfeld had erred. A bigger stir was made in the Defense establishment by the column in Tuesday's Washington Post by retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a noted writer on military affairs. E-mails and phone calls flowed through the Pentagon agreeing with Peters's view that Rumsfeld committed a "serious strategic miscalculation" in not sending enough troops and relying on the "shock and awe" bombing campaign.

posted by Joe at 2:11 PM

 
Operation Iraqi Freedom (AOG: Gray-Matter)
posted by Bill at 1:47 PM

 
DefendAmerica: Iraq News, Photos; DoD Resources

posted by Bill at 12:06 PM

 
Statements of Support from 48 Coalition Governments, through March 26
posted by Bill at 11:37 AM

 
ArmyTimes: Iraq News; FrontlinePhotos
posted by Bill at 10:29 AM

 
Help Iraqis Arise (NYT: William Safire)

"America can't take casualties." That was the first part of the message over the telephone from an Iraqi officer, eager to hedge his bets in case Saddam lost, to a friend in the coalition-held north.

Saddam's plan is not to defeat the Americans and British in some mother of all battles. That proved a loser last time. Rather, the strategy in Baghdad is to use guerrillas (Baath Party Vietcong) to harass our troops everywhere, in order to demoralize America and achieve a negotiated peace.

He's no fool. Every U.S. casualty or prisoner is fully reported in America's media. Television interviewers eager to match the human interest of gutsy frontline journalists exploit the suffering of relatives. Grief-stricken responses make for riveting television and ratchet up calls to stop the war.

Nor can Americans take Iraqi casualties, according to Saddam's plan...

posted by Bill at 9:28 AM

 
War Could Last Months, Officers Say (WaPo: Thomas E. Ricks)

...One senior general at the Pentagon, listening to both sides of the argument, said he thinks that in short term the pessimists will look right, but will be proved wrong by mid-April. "There are some tough days ahead," he said. "I think this whole thing is at the culminating point. Within the next week to 10 days, we will find out about the mettle of the Republican Guard." But he concluded, "Once we smash the Medina and Baghdad divisions, it's game over, and I think Baghdad will fall."

posted by Bill at 9:22 AM

 
Nice article about the Aussies. We fought with a battalion of 1/RAR (Royal Aussie Regt) attached to the 173rd in Viet Nam. Still keep in touch with them, and deeply respect them. They had a tradition of keeping good men in the same job. Might have a machine gunner who had spent his entire career doing just that. No 'move up, or out' policy. No better men to have on your flank. And, through the years, they've always been there.

Jack
posted by Jack at 9:02 AM

 
1,000 Troops Swoop Down on Kurdish Region (NYT)

KUWAIT, March 26 — In one of the largest paratroop drops since World War II, more than 1,000 members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade landed in Kurdish-held northern Iraq tonight, military officials said.

Their intention is to secure an airfield so cargo planes can deliver American tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, opening a long-delayed northern front in the war against Saddam Hussein...

posted by Bill at 9:02 AM

 
The Down But Not Out (TNR: Jacob Levy)

What is it about Australia? The country has been, and remains, among the United States' closest and most faithful allies...sent highly skilled special operations forces to Afghanistan. And Australian troops are among the only non-British soldiers fighting alongside Americans in Iraq. The U.S.-U.K alliance by now seems natural, a fixed point of the contemporary world order. But how is it that distant Australia--unlike Britain, not a world power, not a nuclear power, and not a permanent member of the Security Council--considers fighting Iraq its responsibility, when almost no other country in the world is doing the same?...

posted by Bill at 6:00 PM

 
Jihad TV (NRO: Walid Phares)

Al-Jazeera is ruled by politics. Take the recent airing of footage of American soldiers killed by Iraqis and of the interrogation of American POWs. The decision to air the footage was just another example of the network making politics — rather than reporting — its business...

So, is al-Jazeera a media outlet or a political organization? Answer: It's both. It has the sophistication of modern-day, multidimensional satellite TV — which has led many in the Western intellectual establishment to dub it the "Arab CNN." Despite the nickname, however, al-Jazeera is nothing like Western media outlets, which operate independently of government mandate in countries that guarantee freedom of the press.

In sum, it's "Jihad TV." Its doctrinal message is sculpted patiently through panel discussions including the "al-Sharia wal Hayat" (Law and Life), featuring mainly Sheikh Yussef al-Qardawi, a very influential Muslim Brotherhood cleric. The network functions essentially as a high-tech madrassa, broadcasting the ideology of jihad to millions around the world. Every development is thoroughly analyzed from a jihadist angle...

posted by Bill at 5:50 PM

 
BBC: NPR on steroids
Andrew Sullivan continues his commentary on the anti-American/anti-war bias of BBC reporting; in one entry quotes from this story from The Sun:

The BBC was last night sensationally condemned for “one-sided” war coverage — by its own front line defence correspondent.

Paul Adams attacks the Beeb for misreporting the Allied advance in a blistering memo leaked to The Sun.

And he warned the BBC’s credibility is at risk for suggesting British troops are paying a “high price for small victories”.

On Monday, he wrote from US Central Command in Qatar: “I was gobsmacked to hear, in a set of headlines today, that the coalition was suffering ‘significant casualties’.

“This is simply NOT TRUE. Nor is it true to say — as the same intro stated — that coalition forces are fighting ‘guerrillas’.

“It may be guerrilla warfare, but they are not guerrillas.”

Adams’ memo was fired off to TV news head Roger Mosey, Radio news boss Stephen Mitchell and other Beeb chiefs.

It adds stunning weight to allegations that BBC coverage on all its networks is biased against the war.

In one blast, he storms: “Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving ‘small victories at a very high price?’

“The truth is exactly the opposite.

“The gains are huge and the costs still relatively low. This is real warfare, however one-sided, and losses are to be expected.”

The BBC has come under attack for describing the loss of two soldiers as the “worst possible news for the armed forces”.

One listener asked: “How would the BBC have reported the Battle of the Somme in World War I when 25,000 men died on the first day?”

posted by Bill at 5:32 PM

 
Reforming Iraq a gamble, but it's got to start somewhere (MarkSteyn)

...It is Saddam's intention to compensate for American squeamishness about civilian casualties by ramping up the numbers himself. You couldn't have a more exquisite manifestation of an all but inviolable rule: For all their bluster about killing Jews and infidels, Arab leaders' first and last victims are always Arabs. This has been true ever since the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the first Arab nationalist colossus of the modern era, launched his revolt against the British in 1936. By the time the dust settled, there were hundreds of dead British, hundreds of dead Jews, and thousands of dead Arabs, the vast majority of that last group murdered by the Mufti's men as part of intra-Arab score-settling...

posted by Bill at 4:48 PM

 
Military Synergism Meets Baghdad

Technology has altered old military math. The United States can now use B-52s as close-support artillery, dropping heavy bombs with great precision. When synergy works, one modern U.S. division has the firepower to rapidly defeat several Republican Guard-type divisions. The 101st Airborne can strike an enemy from every direction. There is no "front line" against the 101st.

The old math, however, hasn't fully disappeared and never will. The British are demonstrating this in Basra, as they aid the popular uprisings against Saddam. In many combat situations, there is no substitute for a large force of highly trained infantry.

posted by blaster at 3:48 PM

 
What next for the naysayers? (Cal Thomas)

If the war to liberate Iraq continues to go well; if there are relatively few coalition and civilian casualties; if an "environmental disaster" does not occur with the mass torching of oil wells; if chemical and biological weapons are not used either because American threats of severe consequences have been heard or coalition forces have pre-emptively taken them out; if Israel is not hit with Scud missiles; if, in short, we achieve every objective, what will the naysayers say?

The gloom-and-doom prophets of disaster — from Jimmy Carter, to Walter Cronkite, to the editorial pages of the New York Times — ought to acknowledge they were wrong. But they won't.

posted by Joe at 2:06 PM

 
A Fight for Freedom (John McCain)

Critics who deem war against Saddam Hussein's regime to be an unprecedented departure from our proud tradition of American internationalism disregard our history of meeting threats to our security with both military force and a commitment to revolutionary democratic change.

The union of our interests and values requires us to stay true to that commitment in Iraq. Liberating Iraqis from Hussein's tyranny is necessary but not sufficient. The true test of our power, and much of the moral basis for its use, lies not simply in ending dictatorship but in helping the Iraqi people construct a democratic future.

This is what sets us apart from empire builders: the use of our power for moral purpose. We seek to liberate, not subjugate.

posted by Joe at 1:57 PM

 
Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

God rest their souls, and let's hope this list doesn't grow much longer.
posted by blaster at 1:21 AM

 
"Our Business Now Is North" (Lt. Col Tim Collins)
With one phrase, Lt. Col. Tim Collins, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish, summed up the task in hand for the British forces waiting to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq. Collins was addressing his 800 men, an arm of Britain's 16 Air Assault Brigade, at Fort Blair Mayne, a Kuwaiti desert camp 20 miles south of the Iraqi border. Here is as much of his extraordinary speech as has been reported.
posted by Megan at 5:32 PM

 
Iraq's 'Smoking Gun' Will Be Found, Military Says
Tuesday, March 25, 2003, Reuters
KUWAIT CITY (Reuters) - U.S. and British military experts searching for
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are certain they will find the
"smoking gun" that will vindicate the U.S.-led invasion,
a planning team commander said on Tuesday.
posted by Christine at 4:05 PM

 
The inevitable numbers game resumes in Iraq (John Leo)

Even if civilian casualties in Iraq are light, expect a great deal of attention to the subject in the days ahead. In a numbers-obsessed society, focusing relentlessly on the deaths of innocents -- and inflating the numbers, if necessary -- is a conventional way of undermining support for war. This helps explain why dozens of civilian-casualty articles sprouted in the news media within hours of the first shots in Iraq, even before coalition ground forces swung into action.

posted by Joe at 3:59 PM

 
Using the News as a Weapon (NYT Op-ed: Lucian K. Truscott IV)

Neither Clausewitz nor Sun Tzu had any advice for military commanders on how to manage the news media during time of war. But both agreed that strategic information — about battle plans, troop strength, disposition of forces and so forth — should be denied the enemy so as to enhance an army's ability to use deception and the element of surprise.

Pentagon war planners have turned this ancient military maxim inside out. From the first moments of the war, television screens and newspaper pages around the world have shown and described with images of exploding palaces and an armored phalanx rolling rapidly toward Baghdad. Reports from the Third Infantry Division do everything but cite highway mile-markers of their progress. Reporters are "embedded" so deep into the war that they are subsisting on the same dreadful rations eaten by the troops...

Thanks to Dian Welle for tip.
posted by Bill at 3:03 PM

 
Marines Out To Avenge Blood Of 'executed' GIs (NY Post)

March 25, 2003 -- Reporting from a Marine helicopter base in the Kuwaiti desert.

The Marines at this chopper base near the Iraqi border are seething with rage and talking revenge over the treatment of American POWs - paraded on TV and some possibly executed.

"OK, they want to play that way. We can play that way," vowed one enraged pilot...

Thanks to Dian Welle and her son (USMC) for tip.
posted by Bill at 2:37 PM

 
Hilda Perez of the Orlando Sentinel is an
embedded reporter with the 3rd Military Police Company
Her collection of photos give a clear picture
of the responsibilities of the MPs in securing EPWs
posted by Christine at 11:24 AM

 
Confronting Irag
A collection of eight crucial articles from the past twelve years,
selected by the editors of Foreign Affairs.
Highly recommend the first one by Fouad Ajami.

posted by Christine at 11:17 AM

 
Group shows Iraqis welcoming U.S. (Washington Times)
Thanks to Bev Gadoury for update on this story.
posted by Bill at 9:57 PM

 
War With Iraq: Photo galleries (OrlandoSentinel)
Updated daily. Thanks to Christine Raisig for tip.
posted by Bill at 9:51 PM

 
My Grandfather Invented Iraq

It was my grandfather, Winston Churchill, who invented Iraq and laid the foundation for much of the modern Middle East. In 1921, as British colonial secretary, Churchill was responsible for creating Jordan and Iraq and for placing the Hashemite rulers, Abdullah and Feisal, on their respective thrones in Amman and Baghdad. Furthermore, he delineated for the first time the political boundaries of Biblical Palestine. Eighty years later, it falls to us to liberate Iraq from the scourge of one of the most ruthless dictators in history. As we stand poised on the brink of war, my grandfather's experience has lessons for us.

posted by Jack at 3:42 PM

 
REUTERS RAW VIDEO FEED

This is a great archive resource, up to current. Might want to add this to the template lists in the left margin.

Jack
posted by Jack at 10:44 AM

 
C-Span Resources on Iraq War

The C-Span Iraq war page looks like a major resource.

The C-Span resource page has a very extensive list of links to resources on the war.

Both of these links are now included in the resource list at the left.

posted by Joe at 10:56 PM