Our little corner of the warblogger circle.
Command Post has moved to a different host. Please go to http://216.134.209.67/~command/mt/
until the DNS for the new host resolves
Conceived by Michele, created by Alan, and authored by the best damn bloggers in the
world.
Why? So we can post breaking war news in one convenient
place, and not all over the web.
What counts? Links and breaking news (keeping the rants
for our home blogs).
Join the roll: email Alan at avocare at comcast dot net
or Michele at michele at asmallvictory dot net.
Link to the CP!
Post these buttons now!
Manning The Post
History As It Happened
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Umm Qasr Recalcitrants
MSNBC now running live viddie of Cobra gunships over Umm Qasr, said to be shooting at something.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
A Guide to Australia's involvement and US Combat Engineers
Here's an e-mail dated over a year ago to a US Combat Engineer currently twiddling his thumbs with the 4th Division aboard a ship off Turkey. N.B. The banter is friendly and was taken in good heart by both parties.
> Well, considering that Australia's last moment of military glory was. . . contributing a batallion to the thing in RVN about 30 years ago, I'd have to say that the US Army has PAC clerks and finance weenies deployed to Afghanistan who can consider basically everyone in the Australian Army, including airborne infantry and everything else, as REMFs.
Actually John, you're correct. The Australian SAS currently in Afghanistan spends most of its time in the rear echelon - as did most Australian troops in Somalia and elsewhere.
It's just that it's usually the *Enemy's* rear echelon.
(insert BWAHAHAHA here)
> In regards to the question of who is closest to the enemy if everyone in question is performing their combat missions, I have to refer to the various breaching drills I'm familliar with. They mostly Involve the infantry and armor (we have that in the US Army, that's what we call those loud things with big guns, lots of armor, and tracks)
I thought that was your mobile icecream makers. Thanks.
> pulling security while we roll up to the wire and do what we have to do to get rid of the mines, thus placing us 1)Closest to the enemy, and 2)incapable of taking cover while doing our job, and 3)the main focus of the enemy's defensive fire.
A Mug's game. Too risky by far for anyone with any brain cells to speak of. Requires vast quantities of Cojones too. You're right in the middle of the FEBA[a]. People get to shoot back at you. Phineas T. Barnum was right[b]
Far to the enemy's rear is a much safer place, the Intelligence Clerks, Divisional Locating Batteries, Comms Centres and Supply weenies aren't expecting trouble so far behind the lines. Some of em have never fired a weapon, even on the range. Avoid the armed-to-the-teeth MPs (of which they never have enough) and you're in clover. Beer. Spirits. Ratpacks. POL.
And we get to call anyone who's tens or hundreds (or just very occasionally, thousands) of km to our rear at the FEBA REMFs. Especially Combat Wombats ( ie Combat Engineers ) Pleases us no end. > Now, in Australia you can't afford combined arms[1],
You mean the synergistic combination of InfoWar, SpaceWar, Diplomacy, PsyOps, AgitProp and Conventional Warfare? Yes, we do all of the above.
> so you don't have this beautifully orchestrated ballet of farm implements, so you wouldn't know what in God's name I'm talking about.
Oh we do, we can watch you guys do this stuff all day.
You're good at it, it makes you happy, and against an enemy stupid enough to be where you're assaulting, is bloody terrifying and vastly effective. Would be even more so if you had some decent kit for the job, like the Poms or Germans have. Even the Russkis, for that matter. You have what, ACE and M-728? Good Grief.
> I'd suggest doing some research before running off at the mouth again.
Why? That would spoil all the fun, to get all confused by mere facts... besides which, when did that ever stop you? [ZING]
> [1]That would be where you have a variety of military personnel capable of doing different things in combat.
Chew gum AND walk at the same time? I can see that that might be a major accomplishment in the US Army. Do they give out medals for it? They seem to for everything else.
Let's see, there's the "I forgot to duck" medal, the "6 months without VD" medal, the.....
> It helps to be able to afford tanks, artillery pieces, air defense weapons, engineer vehicles, and combat aviation.
We've got some of them. Not much. Enough to train against, maybe. Actually no, you're right, not even enough for that.
That's OK, the US Army is a great OPFOR[d] when we want to boost our morale, and the USMC[e] when we want some serious opposition.
> Oh, and have more than a brigade's worth of soldiers.
Oh, you need more than that? What Wusses!
[a] Forward Edge of the Battle Area. For the US Army, this means "the front line". For the Australian Army, it means "nearly home."
[b] Who uttered the immortal phrase, "There's a sucker born every minute."
[c] Charlie Brown. ACE = what, Armoured Combat Engineer (vehicle)? Not the best US design ever produced, but not as bad as the many critics have made it out to be. M-728 is an obsolete M-60 Tank with a cut-down version of a british demolition gun, a dozer blade, and a crane. as seen at Waco.
[d] Opposing Force - the "enemy" in an exercise.
[e] Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. OK, US Marine Corps. To Be Taken Seriously.
Hmmmm, now on foxnews they're saying "Iraq will respect POW rights", which seems to fly in the face of the earlier reports that they were not going to do any such thing. Maybe they decided that the PR was more important than trying to put fear into coalition soldiers.
CNN reports the FBI is looking for this man (four pics of the same person), and that he may be linked to the "dirty bomb" suspect. I know this is slightly off-topic, but this guy's the damn enemy, too.
Fox News reports that "officials" are saying Iraqi security and military personnel have started "leaving Baghdad" and that "the erosion from Baghdad has begun." (That last quote is a quote of the "official.")
BBC World service reporter Andrew North "near the Southern Oil Fields" reported over 1 hour ago that all fires - all 7 oil wells and the fire trenches - are out. And as said wells were directly in the background, and were conspicuously not ablaze, this seems a credible report. There's no fire without smoke.
CNN reporting that one of the (presumed) fatalities is a U.S. servicemember. The other six were the British pilots and crew (three each) of the helicopters.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Iraqi Information Minister Is Giving A Statement
On CNN ... let's see how fast we can link to a transcript.
UPDATE: Saying we targeted non-military targets, etc. and 207 civilians hurt so far.
UPDATE: Saying the battle continues for Al-Faw peninsula, and that the British are lying about occupying that land. Accusing us of hijacking civilians ... we're cowards and mercenaries, blah, blah, blah. The best line: This shows how desperate we (the US & British) are.
MSNBC reporting that, although two division-sized units (11th and 51st Divisions) have surrendered to Marines now surrounding Basra, the Iraqi 3rd Brigade (of what I don't know) remains hostile and is inside Basra. Unless they surrender, it looks like we'll have to root them out.
CBS news is also reporting heavy usage of human shields by the Iraqi forces during the battle for An Nasiriyah.
Update: now they're talking about reports that republican guard officers have been distributed around Iraq to act as enforces to keep the rank and file conscript forces from surrendering.
Update: per Toren's comment, there were apparently more than one report of such republican guard officers being shot by conscript troops under them.
CBS news is reporting a mid air collision between two UK royal navy sea king search and rescue helicopters in international waters in the gulf, 7 soldiers missing.
They are also reporting that US forces have taken the city of Al Nasiriyah on the Euphrates river a little over 1/3 of the way between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
'Stay Calm on Iraq, France Warns Its Young Muslims'
PARIS, 22 March 2003 — France issued a stern warning to its rebellious Muslim youths yesterday not to take the Iraq war as a pretext to raise tensions with other religious groups...
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
More British Air Casualties
MSNBC is now reporting that seven crew members are missing after an over-water mid-air collision between two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters.
This doesn't look good.
(Aside: I fear and loathe helicopters. When you need 'em, there is nothing else that does what they do, but, in the meantime, sensible people stay as far away from them as possible, at all times. I hope they find these people.)
(APPEND -- since I've turned it into a personal note after everybody else reported on it and Michele is probably going to beat me in the head, anyway: Ken Layne thinks helicopters are fun. [shiver] Here's my view, Googled up to make the point: "Essentially, heaps of shrapnel cleverly disguised for maximum guile until the moment when the dynamic snake-eyes roll up and shower the countryside with howling doom." This, after a fixed-winger remarked on his two hours' rotor time: "I've never flown anything that wanted to roll itself into a ball that bad." It's really true. They are evil machines, requiring either no brains or tremendous, uncanny, courage to operate. I presume the latter in the case of armed forces types.)
I've modified our settings to show the latest 150 posts on the current page (as opposed to the entire current day). This seems enough for around 8 hours of posts, which is a pretty good period for an "update at a glance," while keeping the load time for dial-up folks a bit shorter. Thanks for the emails giving feedback about the load time; we'll continue to monitor this as the site gets more (and more) popular.
There have been several direct and indirect reports that the US had some high res. eyes on Baghdad during the "target of opportunity" attack. There are reports of specific persons killed in that attack, as well as specific activities occuring right after the attack (such as Saddam being dug out of a pile of rubble and then loaded into an ambulance). Satellites? Predator drones? Local ground "assets"? Misinformation? No way to tell for sure right now, but my money is on predators.
Top Iraqi Cabinet ministers, one of them brandishing an assault rifle, denounced the United States as a “superpower of villains” and said that US-led invaders would be incinerated in Baghdad.
“Victory is guaranteed,” Interior Minister Mahmoud Diyab Al-Ahmed told a news conference, defiantly waving a shiny Kalashnikov and standing in front of a picture of President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi flag.
The 3-7 Cav has temporarily halted its advance more than 100 miles inside. Walter Rodgers is reporting that recon "saw Iraqi troops." He also noted that while he can't say where they are about to go or what they are about to do, he did say that it was "fair to say" that it was going to get interesting.
First it was "no Congressional approval" and "don't rush to war." Then it was "no blood for oil" (petrol, not olive). Then it was "the inspections are working" (just give them 12 more years). Then it was "unilateralism" and "failed diplomacy." Now, with all other anti-war ideas exhausted, we get Eleanor Clift. Can she really believe what she is writing?! This is pathetic.
The Russian online press - which tends toward the Michael Moore school of fact-checking (i.e., none) - really outdid themselves this time.
The City of 'One Thousand and One Nights' Is No More reports a headline on the current utro.ru home page, in a typical outing. BTW, could someone who knows more than I do take a look at this page and tell me what building is depicted on the right of the graphic that's up there now? (The left-hand graphic is from the attack; the right-hand one looks like a mosque or other important building... what I'm looking for is a confirm-or-deny that the left-hand pic has anything to do with the right-hand one.)
Elsewhere on the page are teaser graphics that (maybe) lead to other stories, such as "IRAQ: Events do not follow Washington's plans" (recalling Rums' remark at today's briefing, one likes to think the editors at this site don't have a copy of Washington's plans) and "War on the ground: generals shocked" (which may be turn out to be true if the C3 structure is as fubared on the Iraqi side as is beginning to be suspected).
Of course, what I find ironic is the graphic right below the 'Thousand and One Nights' pic that reads, "Iraq: Only confirmed facts," implying that there might be a link between "news" and 'truth" on the site.
Cheers...
P.S. Ignore Pravda.ru, or if you insist on reading it, keep in mind they're nothing more than old Party hacks.
IBA radio says that the US is flying forces to the H-2 and H-s airfields that have been captured eralier. Those are located in the Western part of Iraq, the area from which Scad missiles were launched at Israel in the last Gulf war.
They are also saying that large US forces will be flown into Northern Iraq, now that the Turkish airspace has been open.
A Few uncomfirmed Rumors and thoughts I'm hearing off the radio show known for drama and talking about...you guessed it, uncomfirmed rumors.
1. As reported earlier, Three Senior Iraqi generals killed during that quick Decap attempt on Wednsday. 2 of them Vice Presidents (Taha Yasin Ramadan, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri), and the third known as "Chemical Ali" i.e. That sick bastard that hit the kurds with gas in '88. All are known as being Saddam Wannabes and Pretenders to the Dictatorship, so they would *not* be meeting together without Saddam, or at least without his sons. What happened to them?
2. Outside of that one story about the Taxi cab driver who got hit by a missile, I have yet to hear of a single civillian casualty. Even with Iraqi tv still going, you'd think they'd have something better to show outisde of showing the wreckage of Saddam's palace and soiled linen.
3. As of this writing, There has been NO ATTACKS, on Israel. Remember, Saddam claimed, and was expected to, shower as many Scuds as he could into Israel, and yet, there has been NO ATTACKS. Not one. You;d think one of the Head Bastards would have ordered something *anything* to occur before we took over Western Iraq.
4. 3rd Infantry may have to go around/fight through a Iraqi Division refusing to surrender today on the road to Baghdad.
5. As a indicator of good news, the Pentagon is supposedly pretty empty. As in, everyone was allowed to go home and see
Posted
by Nick ( http://arrogantrants.blogspot.com/ ) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
The pacifists jump in
Just heard a seat-of-the-pants CNN analysis of Turkish public opinion re: the troop crossing that goes something like this: We give them their flyover rights, and they won't even allow us to go in "and do what we need to do." Ungrateful wretches!
If this what the Turkish guy-in-the-bar actually believes, then that goes a long way toward explaining the fatuousness of broader Arab/Muslim opposition to this war. Just think about it for a moment: the near unanimous consensus in Turkey against a U.S. military invasion is rooted not in deep principles of pacifism, but merely in the identity of the invading army -- which now conveniently happens to be Turkish. If the invading army were Saudi or Egyptian-led, would public opinion in those countries suddenly shift in similar fashion? An utterly implausible thought experiment, of course, but it might give us some sense of just how shallow and impermanent these feelings will prove once we have withdrawn, or our power is not so obvious anymore.
"North Korea vowed to repulse any attack, with the official news agency vowing that the army and people were 'fully ready to wipe out the aggressors to the last man at a single stroke.' "
Man, there are a lot of cars out on the street considering all the "shock and awe" that's been going on. Who's going to work on a day like today in Baghdad?
(from both Fox and MSNBC feeds of the Iraqi "webcam")
Fox reports that "senior Pentagon Administration officials are "confident" that Saddam was seen put on a stretcher and than an ambulance after the strikes Wednesday night. This following "panicked digging."
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Some People Are Not Getting It
"The Palestinian radical group Islamic Jihad (Holy War) Friday called upon Arab and Islamic countries to declare a war against the United States that leads a war against Iraq."
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Top Iraqi leaders believed killed
Abcnews.com is reporting that three top Iraqi leaders have been killed, including Saddam's cousin, "Chemical Ali", who used chemical weapons to supress a kurdish rebellion in the late 1980s. The other two are long time senior Iraqi officials who were very close to Saddam, being "along with Saddam himself [...] the only surviving plotters who carried out the coup that brought the Baath Party to power in 1968."
Also, over a thousand Turkish commandos have reportedly entered northern Iraq, no news yet on an American response. Personally I think this might cause a speedup in the deployment of coalition ground troops to northern Iraq, look for more airbase captures in northern and western Iraq and major operations commencing at those airbases (ground troops and light vehicles, attack helicopters, and especially logistical support vehicles being brought in) within the next few days.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
U.S. in talks for peaceful surrender
CNN: "Iraqi expatriates have been facilitating negotiations among CIA operatives, U.S. military officials and senior members of the Iraq Republican Guard inside Iraq aimed at achieving a peaceful surrender of Iraq, CNN has learned... "They are negotiating a countrywide pacification that allows the U.S. to enter Iraq peacefully to achieve the purpose of disarmament," the official said... The administration official said one of the reasons a deal had not been reached was the United States was trying to ascertain the authority with which the Iraqi Republican Guard senior leaders were speaking. "It is unclear whether these guys represent themselves or a coalition of military commanders who want a brighter future for Iraq," he said."
DefenseLINK at the DoD has a page with multiple links to ways you can help support the troops, from "thank you" cards to military relief associations. Not on their list is one of my favorites, TroopTRAX by our own Michele, but you can go there from here.
Coalition forces have secured Iraq's southern oil fields while Australian forces have destroyed a hidden command center for Saddam Hussein's troops, Australia's defense chief said Saturday.
"It is important to note that the southern oil fields have been secured and that the damage has been assessed as minimal," Gen. Peter Cosgrove told reporters after briefing the Cabinet's National Security Committee. "This is a significant success as it has enabled all of us to avoid potential ecological disaster.".
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — U.S. forces fired five missiles Friday at the base of an Islamic militant group in northern Iraq allegedly linked to the Al Qaeda terror network, Kurdish officials said Washington has claimed that the group, Ansar al-Islam, connects Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. The Kurds also say Ansar could be an obstacle in any U.S.-led offensive on Saddam through the north.
Hello, all. Alan here. The blog looks great, and everyone's watchdog efforts are producing not only the most current briefing out there, but also something that will ultimately be an amazing compendium of the war.
If you're posting and we've missed adding you to the roll, send me an email. Also, watch the posting of large images ... post/link anything that might cause our dial-up friends loading problems on your home blogs. Finally, please try to keep rants or off-topic discussions to the comments or your home blogs, and the main body to links and news. Remember ... we want to keep the focus on news.
Thanks again for everything you're doing to "Man the Post!!"
MSNBC has a report on "Shock and Awe" (shock and awe, shock and awe, echo...)
"It looked for 30 minutes like the end of the world."
Who's going to be the first dance hall dj to loop together a mix using "Shock and Awe" as the theme? (recall "Pure Energy" from the mid-80s or the "New World Order" song that used the quote from Bush I from Ministry[?])? Surely we've got someone here who can put one together.
I've had Fox News Network on in the background all night. They're saying the same thing over and over. And the non-experts are repeating what the experts told them, making it sound is if they know what they're talking about.
Those al Qeda types in Kurdistan were hit by about 6 US missles today, according to Fox News. Perhaps the missle into Iran wasn't so accidental. They've been serving as a refuge for those folks for years. The Kurds make it hot in Iraq and Ansar ducks across the border into Iran.
This appears to be the best, non-classified guide to what military units are located where. It hasn’t been updated since the war started, but it at least tells you what’s placed at every major base.
Give us a clue how to get into Mike's new chat room. I just installed AIM, and all it does is crash my computer. I looked at Cold Fury, and I didn't see no chat room.
Fox reported that the Iraqi Minister of Defense had said that President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld should be, and they quoted, "Hit with a shoe". Thus the story on the origins of this custom. I have to say, that where I come from in Texas having someone say that you should be "hit with a shoe" is grounds for war!
NAIROBI (AFP) - Newspapers across Africa poured scorn on US President George Bush on over the war in Iraq.
In the South Africa, the weekly Mail and Guardian called Bush a "whore, who, more than any of his 42 predecessors, has prostituted himself to his country's industrial interests."
"What a senseless war!" Kenya's Daily Nation lamented on its leader page.
DENVER - Two Iraqis have been arrested for investigation of operating an unlicensed money transferring business that allegedly sent more than $7 million to Iraq (news - web sites), authorities confirmed Friday.
Maitham Abdulla Jaber Al Samar, 39, and his brother, Qassim Abdulla Jaber Al Samar, 38, both of Denver, made initial appearances in federal court Friday, one day after they were arrested
SULAIMANIYA (Reuters) - An Iraqi Kurdish faction controlling part of northern Iraq (news - web sites) said on Saturday it had launched an offensive to crush an Islamist group that both it and Washington have accused of having links to al Qaeda.
A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which runs part of the Kurdish enclave it helped wrest from Baghdad in 1991, said PUK forces were determined to wipe out Ansar al-Islam during the U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
Rumsfeld gloats while Baghdad is subjected to living hell
Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, gloated tonight while Baghdad was subjected to a terrifying 3 hours of massive bombardment by aircraft and cruise missiles.”
"Above all, monumental architecture expresses the dictator's belief in his regime's immortality and in his own longevity. But more likely than not it will be regarded, long after its creator's passing, as simply another monument to bad taste and worse government." --St. Louis Tribune Editorial 12/9/02
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Do we have to have links?
I'm blogging about what I'm watching on Fox (although I might click over to MSNBC or CNN soon), and most of this stuff isn't up on their web sites yet. Am I violating some semi-written rule because I don't have a link to this stuff?
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Slapping Saddam with shoes
Fox News is reporting on the origins of the Iraqi insult of being slapped with the bottom of a shoe, and they show video of a local slapping a large poster of saddam repeatedly with a shoe. This is weird to me. Anyone have more info?
For the first time in living memory, some details about SAS operations have been released within days of the event. It must have been a very important HQ indeed, and the SAS must have decamped quickly.
A sweeping driveway, lined with palm trees, led up to a marble staircase and an imposing four-storey palace. The mansion, built in the style of an elegant mosque, boasted a row of slender arches and a turquoise dome.
Four golden lanterns flanked the heavy wooden door at the entrance.
Saddam's jagged presidential crest, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Star of David, was displayed on the shiny brass door-knobs.
Inside the palace's marble foyer, a domed roof looked down on three ornate storeys, each comprising a perfect ring of delicate white arches.
Four gleaming corridors threaded away in different directions, but all the heavy, wooden doors along them were locked. One window overlooked an inner courtyard. An alcove hid the golden doors of two lifts.
On the edge of the foyer was evidence of the purpose that the room's splendour had come to serve. Behind a pillar, an overflowing ashtray had emptied much of its contents on to a once spotless floor, beside a large television screen and a video player.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
A luxurious ba'ath party headquarters
On a lighter note, the fox reporter is going on and on from Jordan, and he mentions a "luxurious ba'ath party headquarters" sadaam was building a few weeks ago. Luxurious Bath Party Headquarters? Spring Break Girls Caught on Tape in Baghdad?
The caption: "Journalists gather inside the foyer of the Sijood presidential palace in Baghdad after the site was inspected by U.N. weapons experts, who were allowed to enter the compound after a brief wait."
CNN, who no longer have their own correspondents in Baghdad, are telling their staff in Iraq not to blog on their personal sites? What kind of journalism are they doing?
It's now been fully two days since there was a clear sign that Iraq possessed any military command to speak of. Saddam’s status is emphatically unknown. And there are even rumors circulating about Uday suffering some kind of brain damage, and a call for a brain surgeon.
It’s become a cliché, but welcome to the fog of war.
In response to the posted question from Bryan, according to the crawl at the bottom of Fox News about 20 minutes ago, the lights are a sign from the Pentagon to the Iraqi people that the war isn't targeting them, but rather the regime.
US marines took Safwan at about 8am yesterday. There was no rose-petal welcome, no cheering crowd, no stars and stripes.
Ah yes, that's the Gruaniad all right. But wait...
It did not mean there was not heartfelt gladness at the marines' arrival. Ajami Saadoun Khlis, whose son and brother were executed under the Saddam regime, sobbed like a child on the shoulder of the Guardian's Egyptian translator. He mopped the tears but they kept coming.
"You just arrived," he said. "You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."
The Pentagon on Friday evening announced that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was wounded in the American air attack two days earlier. The Iraqi leader was the target of the air strike at the start of the war, which was carried out after intelligence information was received on his location.
This is al-Bawaba. Do they have their head up their burnoose? I haven't heard this anywhere else yet.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
N.Korean "nuclear standoff"?
Just as N.Korea has ratcheted up its war of words, so has CNN, apparently:
"Pyongyang and Washington have been engaged in a nuclear standoff since October last year, when the United States said North Korea had admitted to a covert nuclear program."
N. Korea: U.S. wants world control
"Nuclear Standoff"?? I thought the Cuban Missile Crisis was a nuclear standoff. Would you characterize this as a nuclear standoff?
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Amazing that lights are still on
It was mentioned somewhere last night, but I still think it's a HUGE deal that the street lights are still on in Baghdad. Does anyone have any info on other essential facilities like water in Baghdad?
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Keep U.N. out of the post-war Iraq
Krauthammer, Barnes and Kondracke just finished chewing on the U.N. on Fox.
Best line: "The U.N. has never shown interest in establishing democracy in dictatorships, especially Iraq, and why should we put this in their hands?" (Paraphrase) - Fred Barnes.
"Bush has personalized this war to such an extreme that even if American forces take over all of Iraq and find weapons of mass destruction, the war will not be judged a success unless Saddam is captured or his body is found."
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Testing To See If I'm Here
Apparently the "command post" where they got Chemical Ali and probably a Husseini or two was the one the Germans built. I love the picture of Saddam getting slammed while on one of those golden commodes.
Does anyone have the definitive word regarding the Turkish incursion? The last report that I had heard was that some of our aircraft en route to Iraq were turned back prior to entering Turkish airspace because the Turks were demanding permission from the U.S. to move troops into Northern Iraq, which the U.S. refused. Peter Jennings has just said, however, that we have agreed to allow them to move their troops in, and that the Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. has stated that the Turkish troops will be under a Turkish commander, NOT a U.S. commander. If true, this is incredibly troubling and problematic. The Turks have been disgustingly opportunistic throughout this process, despite the fact that we have given them repeated assurances that we would maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq (read: no separate Kurdish state). Can anyone shed more light on this?
Iraq says its armed forces are resisting US and British troops in the strategic Fao Peninsula and southern port of Umm Qasr, whose capture were earlier announced in London.
"The enemy landed his forces and armor in Fao ... [but his] bad luck brought him under our brave artillery fire," a military spokesman said in a statement here.
"Enemy troops continue to be dealt devastating blows by our brave forces," the spokesman said. ....Iraqi Defence Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmad, while conceding that coalition forces had landed at Umm Qasr port, denied that the city had fallen into their hands and said fighting was continuing.
Umm Qasr remains under the control of the 45th Iraqi Brigade, he has told reporters.
Ahmad said "heavy losses" had been inflicted on US troops, but he gave no figures.
"Until this minute, the brigade is holding on to its positions," he said.
Ahmad also said that the "invaders" had not managed to approach the main southern city of Basra.
Chemical Ali R.I.P Three top Iraqi leaders — including Saddam Hussein's cousin, the infamous "Chemical Ali" — are believed to have been killed in what would be a major blow to the regime's defense against the U.S.-led onslaught, CIA officials told ABCNEWS.
There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that Amish Tech Support has received a request for asylum from Saddam Hussein and an offer to become "Saddamish Tech Support." If anything, it's Amish Tech Support that ought to be put into an asylum.
Here's a report that France is actively trying to get Hussein and his family to accept exile in Mauritania. Of course, the official Mauritanian response appears to be, "Huh? Us? What makes you think we want him?"
Australia's Chief of Defence Staff, General Peter Cosgrove, has emphatically denied a US CBS network report that Australian special forces have discovered weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq.
"No, I can tell you that's a furphy" he stated at a briefing earlier this morning, Australia time.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Republican Guard Surrendering?
Fox News: 51st Mechanized and 11th Divisions have surrendered. From Pentagon, report the Guard units are trying to surrender around Baghdad. Can't you see some Green Beret 2nd Lt. taking the surrender of a Guard division?
The IHT is reporting that Turkey has flip-flopped again. They now say they will let us have use of their air space. However they still want us to endorse their invasion of Iraq from the north.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
It's confirmed - Turks move into Iraq over US Objections
Reuters says 1,500 Turkish commandos crossed the border. That really scares me – the last thing we need is a Turk-Kurd skirmish or worse taking place. Hope the war ends soon and the Turks have even less of a reason for being there. The Turks plan on moving heavier forces into Iraq, but fortunately they haven't prepared for this. They certainly are not going to get any NATO help moving their forces into Iraq.
Posted
by Admiral Quixote (www.solport.com) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Mass Surrender of the entire 51st division (8000 soldiers) reported on CNN. They're speculating that there are more to come.
This might get scored off-topic, but I'm really starting to smell a small rat.
The more I look at that B-52's Over Baghdad image, the more I think it's a fraud. I wasn't real comfortable with it at first, and in spite of my other remarks, I'm still not. It really doesn't make sense. The very first thing I thought when I saw that was, "What the hell are they doing there?" I would have expected them to stand-off and toss Air-Launched Cruise Missiles into the fight. I really wouldn't expect this sort of thing.
I've been turning Baghdad every which way in the Keyhole Earthviewer, and I have not yet been able to identify that hook in the river. I'll keep looking. I've bounced this past some experienced people who were instantly skeptical. Unfortunately, the only B-52 commander I know is currently indisposed. Believe me: I'll be asking about this as soon as he surfaces.
I don't like it, and I'm telling you: I would not put it past CBS to paste-up that thing just for the jeebies it would give to the peaceniks.
ADDENDUM:
Guess what. It's gone, now. They took it down.
I'm so happy that I captured an image of that window with CBS' name all over it.
Iran is making a minor fuss over a missile that landed in Iran, near the border, injuring 2 people. Could have been a US Cruise gone astray, could have been an Iraqi SAM. "I shot a GUIDELINE in the Air, it fell to earth, I know not where."
This photo just dominates the Washington Post front. Go, before they take it down. The caption also notes, accurately, that this is Saddam's main presidential compound on fire. But the New York Times featured a very similar image earlier, saying, more ominously for the collateral damage agonists, that it was simply a building.
Now, which is supposed to be the newspaper of record?
Police cars drove at speed through the streets, their loudspeakers ordering pedestrians to take shelter or hide under cover of tall buildings. Much good did it do. Crouching next to a block of shops on the opposite side of the river, I narrowly missed the shower of glass that came cascading down from the upper windows as the shock waves slammed into them.
Robert Fisk then went on to blame himself for being British for nearly being showered by deadly glass because Isaac Newton was British and formulated the Law of Gravity.
The first rule is for safety reasons - i.e., to keep kids from flocking around possible targets of enemy fire. The second is just one of any number of indications of how fastidious the Administration is being about this campaign. I admit, even though I've never had any trouble trusting the Administration and its motives, they've surprised even me with the importance they've given to such details.
An MSNBC reporter in London just said that British support for the war is now at 53%, and said that the fact that 2,000 American troops are under British command in the war - the first time since WWII - has really made an impression on the Brits. Apparently those 2,000 Marines are assigned to a section of the invasion headed up by the Brits.
I'm sure it's logistically appropriate, but I'm also sure that the PR advantages of trusting our men to Brit command was not off the radar. Smart.
An Iraqi woman welcomes U.S. Marines, as soldiers enter the southern border city of Safwan, Friday, March 21, 2003. The white flag on the car for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)
I've been uploading the pictures to my own site and posting them here, instead of using the blogspot bandwidth. If anyone needs somewhere to host pictures they want to put up here, let me know.
I just read someone's response on this site that said it was getting difficult to load for those with POTS connections because of all the pictures. So I'm not going to post the pictures I collected today here. Instead they are at Solport. If you have the bandwidth, you might be interested. My favorite one is the night vision shot of B52s over Baghdad.
I also suggest that others post most of their pictures at their own sites and provided links at the Command Post. This will help our friends with lower bandwidth.
Posted
by Admiral Quixote (www.solport.com) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Human Shields Wake Up Sober
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, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."
Ari, You Wise Guy: Rumors abound as to the whereabouts and condition of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, with US officials examining uncorroborated reports that he has been wounded, and BBC in London reporting he may have been killed.
The BBC, quoting senior British government officials, reported Friday afternoon that "there is a very real possibility that Saddam Hussein was killed instantly in a "decapitation strike" on his and his daughters' home in Baghdad.
Chief of Defense Staff General Sir Michael Boyce reacted cautiously to the report.
Asked about the report, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer responded ambiguously that he did not know "how Saddam Hussein is feeling today." -- Jerusalem Post
From ITAR-TASS (via gazeta.ru, in Russian), my translation with names transliterated:
Iraqi troops have begun a counterattack on the Fao peninsula in south Iraq, announced the Arab satellite channel Al-Alyam. According to the report, Iraqi troops had earlier been withdrawn from the peninsula and from the port of Umm-Khasr for tactical reasons. The report also said that furious fighting is going on in the Fao area. Meanwhile, the Iraqi Minister of Defense denied that the port of Umm-Khasr had been captured in south Iraq, that British troops were advancing along the peninsula, or that the Rumeila oil fields had been taken. However, Sultan Khashem did confirm that American troops had landed in the Ar-Rutba region not far from the Jordanian border. The minister declared that "enemy troops had suffered significant losses." Sultan Khashem's press conference took place on Friday evening in Baghdad and was not interrupted by the start of bombing (ITAR-TASS).
FWIW. At least, this stuff is a break from the tedious "color commentary" I've been seeing on FOX and CNN.
I forgot to mention that they material requires temperature control. The news reports this as likely meaning either biological or radiological materials. My guess would be biological.
This is a very scary report if those are biologicals.
Note: radiologicals can be economically damaging but are not likely to hurt any or many people. Biologicals could be devastating.
The money for the Tomahawks is being taken out of the tax cut:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The initial air assault on Iraq calls for launching nearly 700 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles at a cost of almost $1 million apiece, representing a small chunk of a war budget expected to top $75 billion.
While President Bush's administration is expected to send its massive war budget to Congress for swift approval as early as next week, the Senate acted preemptively on Friday by voting to trim $100 billion from Bush's tax-cut plan to cover war-related costs.
I, for one, am glad to spend my share on these weapons.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
6 Iraqi's sought in Mexico, Texas with "highly toxic and dangerous material" - NBC
Meanwhile, sources in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas told NBC News that agents of the national security agency were seeking six Iraqi nationals with German passports believed to be carrying “highly toxic and dangerous material” and apparently trying to enter the United States.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said police in the municipality of Valle Hermoso, about 60 miles southwest of Brownsville, Texas, were told of the search for the men by agents of Mexico’s national security agency on Monday.
As the bombs continue to drop, so do the anti-war protestors. Massive protests are continuing in San Francisco, as peaceniks vowed to shut down the city again today. Elsewhere, protesters are gathering in droves.
Vowing to shut down the city for the second day in a row, anti-war protesters descended upon the streets of San Francisco's financial district Friday morning. Some 80 to 100 were arrested. In East Lansing, Mich., about 100 protesters, including some who were chained together, blocked a main road near Michigan State University. Police arrested 14.
A block from the White House, about 100 demonstrators gathered, many smeared with fake blood on their bodies and stuffed animals and dolls they carried. About two dozen were arrested for blocking traffic.
About 70 protesters dropped to the ground Friday outside a federal courthouse in Baltimore; 30 were arrested. One protester held a sign saying "This is what war looks like." Three hundred people rallied, and 15 were arrested, in Chicago's Federal Plaza. In Minneapolis, 200 people, some carrying a giant coffin, staged a "die-in" at the federal courthouse.
France, Belgium and Germany Seek To Merge Militaries: European Union divisions over Iraq widened on Friday when three anti-war states agreed to hold a summit on defense integration without Britain, while London stood by charges that France had wrecked diplomacy in the crisis.
As EU leaders wrapped up a second day of tense talks, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt announced plans for France, Germany and Belgium to meet next month to discuss integrating their armed forces more closely.
... and if you want to see "shock and awe," look at the faces of the leisure travelers as they see the size of the security lines at the airports today and yesterday! The TSA is certainly being even more diligent. Oh ... and boarding now ...
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. Marines in southern Iraq are encountering so many
surrendering Iraqi soldiers that they are being allowed to go home after
surrendering their weapons, New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins told NBC News
Friday.
A U.S. Marine told Filkins that there are so many surrendering soldiers that
there is nothing more that can easily be done to process them, he said.
Filkins told the network that a British general told him that the Iraqi
resistance is melting.
-By Robert S. Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4378;
hbsglobaldesk@dowjones.com
Just checking in from the Minneapolis / St. Paul airport ... 10,600 hits?!?! And great posts ... those snaps are amazing ... just the kind of updated I wanted to see. I'll try to add those who sent me blogroll addition requests before I board ... if I can't, I'll do it first thing tonight.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Opening rounds of 'A' day
Were fairly impressive. And that is only the beginning. Gen. Meyers was accurate when he mentioned that there are literally hundreds more targets available.
We can keep this up for quite a while. Keep in mind that what we saw on the network feeds was again, only a very, very small fraction of what is going on elsewhere. At the same time that was happening in Baghdad, it was happening at numerous other Iraqi military sites, and other Iraqi cities.
And it was significant to note...during the entire time, the lights stayed on. This isn't a wholesale assault on the city or the people. This is a precision thrust at the bastards that have wracked that country in pain, and been a pimple on the ass of humanity for so very long.
Claude Valluy, a senior manager with French electrical equipment firm Sicamex, said the best that non-American and non-British firms could expect from the reconstruction effort was "occasional crusts", in the form of low value-added operations in sectors already operating to European norms.
Sicamex remained relatively confident it would win electrical contracts, because Iraq's entire low-voltage grid has been designed and maintained according to French standards for the last 20 years, thanks to earlier contracts with state-owned power giant Electricite de France.
"They're not going to change the whole grid, so it will be difficult to cut out French companies," Valluy said.
However, he believes it to be inevitable that British and US companies will take the lion's share of contracts in the cash-cow oil sector.
Existing Iraqi oil contracts painstakingly negotiated by French companies over the years "are likely to be dropped", he said.
Sounds good to me.
Posted
by Admiral Quixote (www.solport.com) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
A few battle deaths coming in, 2 marines killed in firefights so far.
Also, quick speculation: If any "wizard weapons" are going to be used in the first stages of "Shock and Awe" those B-52s from Britain are probably the best candidates for them to be on.
Some details are emerging about a number of firefights deep inside Iraq in which Australian special forces managed to kill or wound several Iraqis, for no losses
Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldiers are deep inside Iraq and have engaged in firefights with Iraqi troops, shooting and killing some, the commander of the Australian contingent revealed today. Brigadier Maurie McNarn said the SASR soldiers had also stopped to treat other Iraqi soldiers wounded in contacts. No Australians had been injured or killed.
Also, HMAS ANZAC provided naval gunfire support to the Royal Marine Commandos landing on the Al-Faw Peninsula, Australian navy personnel have captured an Iraqi tug containing sea mines, and the RAAF F-18 Hornets continue to provide fighter escort for the air tankers and AWACS planes.
The comments are going to take me off topic, and only one time, but...
Iraq may have a large middle class, hooray, but how many have Internet access? Salam is in that top whatever percent, 10 percent, five percent? Along with the Tikrit Thugs and the Baathists. BTW, I won't tar all Baathists with the same brush, because to get ahead in Iraq, you were a Baathist, just like to get ahead in the Soviet Union you were a Communist. De-Nazification didn't remove all the Nazis, just the top ones. Do we scrap the postmaster in East Podunk, Iraq because he became a Baathist and got his job that way? Or the water commissioner?
All men are created equal means that Americans dying is just as OK as Iraqis? I'd rather none did, but if any have to, I'd rather they did. That makes Americans more valuable to me than Iraqis. That's chauvanistic, jingoistic, and a bunch of other istics but I don't care. We started this war so that no more of us would die, to end the threat that the Tikrit Thugocracy represented to the United States.
ABC is working hard to miss this war with the Mother Of All Blunders... word is that their West Coast Feed bailed back to Regis right before the bombing started.
I wonder who Eisner will swing his sword at this time.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Iraqis Talking Surrender as Nation?
Consistent With "Dead Hussein" Theory
I can't find this on Google, but I saw it shoot by on the CNN ticker. There is a rumor that senior Iraqi officials are talking to a third party about surrender. Maybe it's France. Might as well go to the experts.
It's encouraging, and it's consistent with my pet theory that Saddam is dead or flat on his back. Generally, the Iraqis have a lot to gain from surrender. I don't think the same can be said of Hussein.
The substance was discovered about 1 p.m. during the search of a handbag at an American Airlines section of the terminal, said a police spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the city's airports.
Results of an on-site test were inconclusive, and a hazardous materials team was called to the scene to investigate, police said.
What a random and diplomatic description, too: "the search of a handbag" ... Who the hell was carrying the handbag? The handbag wasn't trying to go through security of its own accord.
The Sky News reporter is continually commenting on the casualties to civilians that MUST be occurring. He claims to have seem numerous wounded in the hospital earlier today, cuts and such. Remember that all that ack ack and SAM fire is falling back to earth and causing its own damage. The reporter talks about children out playing and getting injured.
We put three bombs, one after the other, from low flying jets, right in front of him. Easily heard on the radio. He was quite startled.
Diane E. has news from Salam that seems to confirm brain damage (no jokes, please) to Uday.
By the way, Chuck, she's been emailing Salam for months and is convinced of his authenticity. But that wasn't the point of my post below. I just wanted to put a check on the celebrations of the nifty explosions we were seeing. Those aren't fireworks exploding. They're bombs. It isn't a movie. It's real.
According to the teevee, coalition troops have secured the Faw peninsula of Iraq, its ports, and several cities, as well as several oil fields. Reportedly, only 7 oil fields are on fire as yet. As everyone else has been saying, "Shock and Awe" is underway, and B-52s are now en route to Iraq. Ground forces are pushing deep into Iraq from Kuwait and are about 2 days away from Baghdad. Turkey has opened up airspace "corridors" for bombing runs (my bet is that the B-52s are coming in from Britain on those). I think the big "sleeper" story are the airbases in western and northern Iraq which have been and are being secured, look for those to play a key role in the next few days as additional ground fronts open up. Also look for friendly forces within Iraq (Kurdish forces probably) to get in the mix, maybe, in the next few days. We're not just bombing the heck out of Mosul because we have nothing better to do.
Ari Fleischer is just now talking about the possibility that Saddam's speech was canned, if there aren't any new speeches by Saddam in the next few days expect increasing skepticism about whether he's actually still alive.
Update: He also said that there has been no evidence in the last few days of the top Iraqi command giving any orders.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Arrogance, thy name is media
Someone, I didn't get the name, asked in the press conference if the president was watching the attack on television. Ari said the president didn't watch it at the beginning, he couldn't vouch for later. The questioner said, how could the president not watch to see what was happening? And Ari said, the president doesn't need to watch television to understand what it means to authorize force.
It was a beautiful moment. And how arrogant of that journalist to assume the president needs pictures to understand concepts.
I guess I'm one of a very small minority who still have doubts about this individual. On the face of it, since he has Internet access, and so few Iraqis do, it puts him into the upper crust if not the ruling elite. He may not be a Tikrit Thug, but he's an enabler. I probably don't feel as sorry for him as I should.
Are the women and children scared? Sure they are. And they're supposed to be. We want to scare the Iraqis into surrendering. Most of the buildings we're bombing are empty. No Iraqi government official in their right mind is in a palace or government office. They're not volunteering to be human shields.
I mourn every life lost, because one man could have prevented it all. Every life lost goes on Saddam's ledger with God. But I also know that what we are doing is a demonstration as well as an attack. I can applaud an effective demonstration without demeaning the lives lost. And, until the war is over, we can't know how many, if any are dying in Baghdad. We know that six Americans have died, all volunteers for this mission, and I do mourn for them. It's on Saddam's ledger.
To paraphrase George Patton. The purpose of war is not to die gloriously for your country. The purpose of war is to make some other poor son of a bitch die for his. There is no equivalence here. American lives are move valuable than Iraqi lives when push come to shove. If I didn't believe that, I'd be out in front of the Federal Building right now with some silly sign, vomiting on the steps or something.
A British Member of Parliament has asked military leaders in Iraq to think about some of the forgotten casualties of war -- animals.
Tony Banks, a former minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government, welcomed promises from London and Washington that troops would do their best to avoid hitting ordinary Iraqis in bombing raids, but said they also needed to think about the creatures in Baghdad's El-Zawra Zoo.
"In war, countless numbers of animals are killed and injured," the former sports minister, who voted against war on Iraq, said in an statement put before parliament on Friday.
Yup. He's the former Sports Minister. Imagine all the Top Secret material he knows about wickets and rugby shirts. I bet he was even cleared for experimental Quidditch brooms before he lost his portfolio.
He appealed to military leaders "to ensure that Baghdad's El-Zawra zoo is safeguarded and that when hostilities are over military vets will provide urgent assistance to the zoo and other organizations involved with animal welfare in Iraq."
The zoo, which is reported to be shut and under renovation, escaped bomb damage during the 1991 allied blitz on Baghdad but keepers said the animals had been disturbed by the noise of bombs hitting nearby targets.
Oh, right. We'll just put this whole shock and awe thing on the shelf so the lemurs and walruses don't get disturbed.
Iraq will not observe international standards with regard to military prisoners of the US-British coalition, announced Iraqi Minister of Information Muhammed Said as-Sakhkhaf on Friday. "These are not soliders," said the minister at a press conference in Baghdad, "these are mercenaries, to whom international law does not apply."
It is more than likely that "they will be treated as mercenaries, hired killers, and criminals," added the minister. According to him, Iraqi authorities are currently reviewing whether prisoners will be handed over to military tribunals. "However, international law will not be applied to them," said Muhammed Said as-Sakhkhaf.
Powell to Meet Israeli Official on Peace Plan: Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will meet with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington in about 10 days to discuss a Mideast peace plan known as the 'road map,' a television report says.
I was listening to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's briefing and some clueless reporter asked him if the US military could have picked less targets and been more precise. Rumsfeld stated that
Every weapon was individually and specifically picked for its target. The direction that each weapon travels before it hits the target was carefully selected. Even the time of day was calculated to absolutely minimize the number of civilian casualties. This is the most precise military campaign ever waged.
Warfare in the information age, indeed.
Posted
by Admiral Quixote (www.solport.com) |
Permalink |
The Russian REGNUM Information Agency reports that CNN has been ordered to leave Baghdad for lying and disseminating propaganda (Russian language link). The translation of the item is pretty much this::
CNN has been ordered to leave Baghdad, confirmed an official representative of the Iraqi Ministry of Information in a Reuters interview. According to the represenative, CNN had become an instrument of propaganda and was broadcasting lies and rumors. In turn, CNN representatives announced in their broadcast that they had learned, with regret, that the Iraqi government had expelled the company's correspondents.
I've been away from The Tube, so I can neither confirm nor deny. Considering the source, I'd give this a 33% chance of being on the money.
Somewhere in the United States and Great Britain, families are being notified that their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers are dead. In Iraq, when "Shock and Awe" is over, there will be deaths on the ground. There are Iraqi soldiers already dead.
Something to remember when thinking how cool the explosions look on television: Think of Salam Pax and his family listening to those explosions in their homes, and wondering if they're going to land on them.
I understand patriotism and support. But there are boundaries.
(parpaphrased moslty)
The goals of the coalition forces are thus:
End regime of Hussein
Identify, isolate and eliminate WoMD
Search for, capture and drive out terrorists in Iraq
Collect intelligence related to the global network in regards to WoMDs
End sanctions immediately and deliver humanitarian aid, food and medicines
Secure Iraqi oil fields, which belong to the Iraqi people
Help the Iraqi people create a representative republic government
A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.
"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."
Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"
.....
"No Saddam Hussein!" one young man in headscarf told Gurfein. "Bush!"
(Update: Not a good way to start out on a new blog, as this already been posted by Sheila
Posted
by Nick ( http://arrogantrants.blogspot.com/ ) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
The fact that the power is still on in Baghdad speaks volumes about the way this war is being waged. If you could ever call a war humanitarian, this is would be the case.
Gertrude Bell was one of those stalwart dotty English adventurers whose fascination with Arab culture shaped the Middle East (including Iraq) into what it is today.
. . . her life was governed by a love of the Arab peoples, inspired, it seems, by a visit to friends in Jerusalem in 1899-1900. She learned their language, investigated their archaeological sites, and travelled deep into the desert, accompanied only by male guides. Her knowledge of the country and its tribes thereby gained made her a prime target for recruitment by British Intelligence during the First World War, later, as a Political Officer, and then as Oriental Secretary to the High Commissioner in Baghdad, she became a king-maker in the new state of Iraq, which she had helped to create. Her first love, however, was always for archaeology, and, as Honorary Director of Antiquities in Iraq, she established in Baghdad the Iraq Museum.
Sonofabitch... The CNN feed from Baghdad looks like a big-budget Hollywood film now.
Loud jets, lots of AAA, and strings of bombs that look like B-52 strikes. ("B-52: someone over thirty you can trust.")
I can hear breaking glass now & then in this look. The audio is superb, and I'm looking at a city that's just getting the livin' jeezis beaten out of it.
Australia's Channel Nine news is reporting Defence spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan as saying SAS troops deep inside Iraq have engaged in a firefight with Iraqi troops. Several Iraqi dead and wounded, and SAS medics have treated the wounded. No Australian casulties.
We are in total darkness but I can see the lights of Nassiriyah.
There's been quite a lot of fighting, quite a few rockets. Artillery has landed in and around the city.
We see the very visible the ligths of this city on the horizon.
And if we do go in there tonight it'll be the first major Iraqi city to fall to American forces.
Battle flares at Nassariyah outskirts where coalition’s northward advance Friday afternoon faces first serious Iraqi armed resistance. Main allied force presses on leaving unit behind to engage Iraqi force.
I was watching [on internet] the MSNBC live feed from Baghdad when suddenly all I got was the old test pattern. I wonder if the Iraqi's finally pulled the plug on live coverage of their demise?
Random thought. I miss the old Indian Chief test pattern. Those colored lines just don't do it for me.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
CNN Ordered Out of Baghdad
"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites) ordered Cable News Network (CNN), the U.S. television news channel, to leave Iraq on Friday and accused it of being a propaganda machine.
CNN, on air, said it was "sad to learn" that its four-strong team in Baghdad was being expelled.
"CNN has been ordered out of Iraq...because they have become a propaganda tool to spread lies and rumors," said an information ministry official who declined to be identified. CNN, based in Atlanta, Georgia, said its staff would probably have to travel overland to Jordan.
Overnight, CNN ran extensive live pictures of U.S. military units racing across the southern Iraq desert after they invaded the country and headed toward Baghdad, with little resistance. Iraqi government officials, at a news conference, said such pictures being shown on Western TV networks were fabrications."
The Marines arrived in Safwan, just over the Kuwaiti border, and began tearing down posters of Saddam Hussein (which are everywhere, seeing as dictators cannot survive without personality cults of absurdist proportions). The Marines assured the Iraqi people: "Saddam is done! Saddam is done!"
We wanted to send a message that Saddam is done," said Gurfein, a New York native in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. "People are scared to show a lot of emotion. That's why we wanted to show them this time we're here, and Saddam is done."
Also:
A few men and boys ventured out, putting makeshift white flags on their pickup trucks or waving white T-shirts out truck windows.
"Americans very good," Ali Khemy said. "Iraq wants to be free."
Some chanted, "Ameriki! Ameriki!"
Many others in the starving town just patted their stomachs and raised their hands, begging for food.
A man identifying himself only as Abdullah welcomed the arrival of the U.S. troops: "Saddam Hussein is no good. Saddam Hussein a butcher."
An old woman shrouded in black -- one of the very few women outside -- knelt toward the feet of Americans, embracing an American woman. A younger man with her pulled her away, giving her a warning sign by sliding his finger across his throat.
I'm working on some banners and buttons for Command Post.
Here's the first. I urge all Command Post members (and readers as well) to put it up on their blog in a visible place with a link back here. (Please save to your own server)
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Toughest Marines in the World
According to the Fox News Ticker, our marines can even destroy Iraqi tanks with just machine guns.
Talk about propaganda! Now that has to really make any watching Iraqi soldiers quake.
Update - having the two pictures in a row was messing up those with smaller screen resolutions, so they now appear on top of each other. You can see them side by side here.
Posted
by Admiral Quixote (www.solport.com) |
Permalink |
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Our Friends the French: Jacques Chirac said Friday that France would not go along with a new United Nations resolution allowing the United States and Britain to administer postwar Iraq.
The French president said at a European Union summit he would "not accept" a resolution that "would legitimize the military intervention (and) would give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq."
"That would justify the war after the event," Chirac told reporters.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Another Way To Show Our Gratitude
"The Center for Individual Freedom has launched a new online interactive bulletin board where messages can be posted to our brave men and women in uniform letting them know how much we appreciate their commitment to our great country and to the ideals for which it stands."
www.thankourtroops.org will be live shortly. In the meantime, the bulletin board is accessible via CIF.
Off Topic: Does anybody have information regarding live online feeds of newscasts? It appears that Sky News' online feed is dead and gone. Anyone have info? Please use comment link directly below if you have any ideas.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Golden Gate Bridge fall was 2nd for protester
A man who miraculously survived an accidental fall off the Golden Gate Bridge 15 years ago during a personal crusade took a second plunge off the span Wednesday to protest the war in Iraq.
U.S. intelligence officials tell us the evidence that Iraqi artillery units are preparing to use chemical warfare shells is based on reconnaissance photographs of the shells.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
ABC: Witnesses Say Saddam Carried Away From Rubble With Oxygen Mask
Here's a cheery bit of news to brighten your coffee break: ABC News says witnesses on the ground in Iraq claim they saw Saddam Hussein carried off on a gurney with an oxygen mask over his face.
Well, I think they mean wells, but if it's only 30, then it's great news all the same. What this shows is that the resistance is sporadic at best and the Saddamite zealots are few and far between.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Situational Update from Office of Asst Sec Def for Leg Aff
§ News reports from embedded media early this morning indicate that the United States Marine Corps have taken the Southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr.
§ Overnight reports from embedded media also include the first images of Iraqi soldiers surrendering to coalition forces.
§ News reports and satellite imagery indicate that a handful of oil fields in Northern and Southern Iraq are burning. DoD has not confirmed the cause of these fires.
§ British Royal Marines have seized control of oil manifolds in the south eliminating Saddam’s ability to dump oil in the Gulf as he did in 1991.
§ A U.S. Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight Helicopter carrying both U.S. and U.K. military personnel crashed early this morning south of Umm Qasr, near Highway 801 in Kuwait. The crash occurred at approximately 3:00 a.m. local time. There were no U.S. survivors. The names and units of the casualties are being withheld pending next of kin notification.
Ground Truth From Yesterday
§ An unidentified missile struck outside Camp Commando at approximately 10:28 am on 3/20/03.
§ An NBC monitor team was dispatched and completed a survey of the site. No chemical munitions were found.
§ PATRIOT firing batteries successfully engaged and destroyed two tactical ballistic missiles during an attack on Kuwait at approximately 12:24 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. (4:24 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. EST) on 3/20/03.
A U.S. Marine replaces the Iraqi flag at the entrance to Iraq's main port of Umm Qasr on March 21, 2003 with the Stars and Stripes and the flag of the Marine Corps. Marines briefly raised the U.S. flag over Umm Qasr after facing tougher than expected resistance in and around the southern Iraq port. Some time later, the flag was removed. No reason was given for the decision, but Washington has consistently stressed that invading U.S. forces want to liberate Iraq, not occupy it. Photo by Desmond Boylan/Reuters
There are still pockets of resistance here in Umm Qasr. US marines are patrolling the streets of the town trying to flush out the last remaining Iraqi opposition.
They say they have managed to largely clear the new port and the old port, they say, is now almost secure.
This port - Iraq's only deep water port - is absolutely vital to the coalition aim to use for the delivery of vital humanitarian aid.
They hope to open the port within the next two days.
Although some 30 oil wells inside Iraq had been set alight, Hoon said most of the oil fields captured by British troop at al-Faw -- which provides access to the Persian Gulf -- were still intact.
Earlier, a spokesman for British forces in the Persian Gulf said allied soldiers could enter Baghdad within the next "three or four days.''
Group Captain Al Lockwood, speaking to reporters at the main allied command centre in Qatar, said the U.S.-led attack could enter the Iraqi capital swiftly.
"If I was a betting man, and I'm not, I would say hopefully within the next three or four days,'' the British Press Association quoted Lockwood as saying.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Jordan opens up Iraq's western front
AMMAN - It may come as quite a shock, but thunderous silence does not mean that all's quiet on the Iraqi western front. "The surprise is not the attack on Baghdad or the advance from Kuwait. The surprise will come from Jordan," a top Jordanian source who requested anonymity told Asia Times Online. The source says that well over 400 American tanks and more than 7,000 American troops may well be on their way to Baghdad from a remote launching pad in eastern Jordan.
Agreed. The CNN commentry about how great the CNN commentry is... awful. But the live feed from the 7th Cav is cool. It’s like t was directed by Joel Shumacher.
While the newsies rave about the "in Bradley" photos coming out live from Iraq, for me it's just watching a dust cloud with vehicles appearing and disappearing. Not all that dramatic, especially when you know the camera will go off if any actual combat occurs. It's like looking at one long continuous video of "My Cross Country Vacation".
I did like the CNN video of the guys out stretching their legs, and the shepherd. Who, I hope, somebody frisked for weapons and radios.
The Fox guy last night reported that his unit had entered "The Kingdom of Iraq". Which had a bunch of cousins in the palace in Amman jumping up and down, waving their hands, and hollering "Pick me! Pick me!"
Is anyone else expressing shock and awe at the wonderful news coverage? I never expected major media to be riding into battle with compact satellite camera phones. This is playing out like any typical sequel. The plot and action aren't as good as Gulf War I, but the media's 'special effects' are much improved.
Safwan is an Iraqi military facility located 46 km S of Basra. It is an unoccupied emergency dispersal/recovery strip.
Safwan Airfield is located six kilometers west of the intersection near Safwan, in Southeastern Iraq, just north of the Kuwait-Iraq border.
The airfield holds the distinction of having been the location at which the formal cease-fire ceremony took place on March 3, 1991 between Iraqi and Coalition troops [source]
Crude Oil Prices Continue Fall on London Exchange: London, March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell for a seventh session as U.S. and U.K. forces pushed into Iraq, securing more land and wells and reducing the likelihood of further damage to country's oil industry.
U.K. Royal Marines secured the al Faw peninsula in southeastern Iraq, U.K. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said. Reports of progress by allied troops in Iraq, which accounts for about 3 percent of world oil supply, helped London oil prices fall to their lowest in almost four months.
``The key was getting hold of the Faw peninsula because that's a huge exporting region and has oil pumping facilities,'' said Bruce Evers, an analyst at Investec Henderson Crosthwaite in London.
Brent crude oil for May settlement fell as much as 70 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $24.80 a barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the lowest intraday price since Nov. 26. It was down 30 cents at 10:54 a.m.
Dead Bodies Are Everywhere "There was little initial resistance as the United States Marines swept into southern Iraq early yesterday. One of the first encounters of the ground war was more like a massacre than a fight.
The Iraqi gunners fired first, soon after United States President George Bush announced the attack on Saddam Hussein was under way.
It was a fatal mistake.
The Iraqi artillery unit, preparing for the American invasion, had tested the range by firing registering shots at a likely spot where the American tanks would cross from Kuwait. US radar picked up the incoming shells and pinpointed their source.
Within hours, the Iraqi gunners and their Russian-made 122mm howitzers were destroyed as the Americans unleashed an artillery barrage that shook the ground and lit up the night sky with orange flashes.
30 Oil Wells Burning: "When we woke up this morning, we could see the sky blackened behind us which suggested there were oil wells on fire. We've since been told there are perhaps 30 that have been torched by Iraqi troops, but both British and American troops are enclosing round that area." --BBC Reporter's Notebook
Brits on Sky News Aren't the Brightest Bulbs: Brit reporters are wondering about the operation "bogging down" around Basra and questioning why the Western attack seems to be moving so quickly while the Basra region is "bogged down"...perhaps because the Coalition troops in Basra are FIGHTING?
Go North, Young Man - from the Jerusalem Post: "In the assembly areas all along the Kuwait Iraq border, the awesome force of the army's V Corps was on display Thursday afternoon. Its 3rd Infantry Division, which will take the lead role in the ground offensive, will be moving into Kuwait with some 10,000 vehicles.
This number is larger than the total number of vehicles used by the US Army in Europe throughout World War II.
Driving five kilometers through the desert up to the border, line after line of tanks, artillery, Bradley fighting vehicles, multiple launch rocket
systems (MLRS), Patriot missile batteries, mortars, trucks, fuel tankers, and anti aircraft guns were parked in columns ready to move with their guns all pointed in one direction, north."
Fox News has another retired Army military consultant, Col. Hunt, on right now. If central casting wanted to find the perfect look and voice to play the tough-talking military commander, this would be the guy. He's gravel-voiced, tough-talking, and ready to leap from that chair. Just imagine Judge Mills Lane geared up in camo, sidearm strapped on, standing befroe a batallion, looking you right in the eye and yelling "Let's get it on!"
Fox is alro reporting that Iraqi leadership is offering a bounty on coalition soldiers' heads: $14K for a kill, $28K for a capture, and $35K if an aircraft is shot down. The Iraqis are also denying that we've taken Umm Qasr. In fact, I've heard they're denying that we're even in country. And their information mimisters has allegedly stated that any foreign troops seen in Iraq are mercenaries and don't fall under geneva convention rules. This is pretty outraegous, since it means that Allied prisoners are then subject to torture. That would then be a war crime. How stupid can these people be?
Interesting observations upon catching up on the news from the overnight hours:
The fact that we have yet to see a "shock and awe" campaign and Baghdad is still standing leads me to believe that Saddam may indeed be dead or seriously injured.
Meanwhile, I have yet to see the numbers of dead and injured that the anti-war folks swore we would see at this point. Iraq is not flattened. The entire child population of Iraq has not been wiped out.
Instead, we are seeing a lot of surrendering, a possible early hit on Saddam and a war that may be won with incredibly little bloodshed.
The recently-expelled Iraqi Ambassador to Australia was interviewed on TV in Australia today. There's no transcript available, but I've listened to it several times, and it went approximately like this...
Reporter: "What is going to happen in the next few days?"
Ex-A: "It will be a great Victory."
Reporter: "Who will be defeated?"
Ex-A : "The others. The others will have a great Defeat."
Reporter: "Who will have a great Victory?"
Ex-A: "The Iraqis"
Reporter: "You mean Saddam Hussein's regi...?"
Ex-A: "The people of Iraq. They will have a great Victory."(smiles)
In other news he's reportedly looking to have a quick vacation in New Zealand rather than heading directly home..
From the American Press Institute's Journalist Toolbox ... the Iraq Crisis Bulletin. Anybody want to own checking this through the day? I'm going to be in meetings and on airplanes almost non-stop ...
US has launched an assault into two key airfields in the West, and controls both. Also, two of the four burning oil wells are out, one is on the way, and the fourth is still burning.
Apparently the Turks have gone schizophrenic over the whole deal, and are flailing around with the airspace useage issue. They also seem to be itching to move their own troops into Northern Iraq, which would be phenomenally bad at this point. Reports continue of activity in Mosul in the North.
So far allied casualties are light, with one combat related death reported, and the loss of those aboard the CH-46 that crashed in Kuwait. There is little reporting of Iraqi casualties among those offering resistance, although those numbers would probably include the three guys from the observation post that rushed out with AK-47's and charged on foot at an approaching Bradley fighting vehicle in the opening push.
This has been a ball, I'm off on a Fayetteville to New Orleans trip to pick up my M.i.L. The war may be over before I get within pecking distance of a keyboard again, but at least I'll have something to read. Thanks to Alan and Michele for this forum.
Friday, March 21, 2003 |
Saddam son's compound devastated in U.S. strike
BAGHDAD, March 21 (Reuters) - The ruins of a palatial compound occupied by President Saddam Hussein's younger son and heir apparent Qusay were smouldering as dawn broke over central Baghdad on Friday, 24 hours after a first U.S. air raid.
NARITA -- Ten Japanese men and women left Japan Thursday for Iraq to serve as "human shields" against the U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The AP is reporting that "some 200 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit just over an hour after it crossed the border into Iraq from northern Kuwait."
This is one of the first reports I've seen of specific units surrendering. Certainly a good sign.
