Great site, Sean! You're a "life saver" as far as war blogging goes. Keep up the good work!

I see we have new definitions of cities being under control. Tommy Franks seems to be making this up as we go along. Thank goodness for this site, we actually have a chance of knowing what is going on. Now we can say an area is under "our" control if we are able to deliver humanitarian aid. Is this a new military definition?

Has there been any news of any bridges being blown?

Does it strike anyone else as being really strange that the Iraqis haven't blown one bridge?

this link has been working for a few hours...they just finished with the franks briefing..
http://www.ish.com/news/Al-Jazeera.html#

EST??

wtf?

what was wrong with CST?

I heard about you on National Public Radio on Sat. 3/22. Where are you and what makes you more reliable than the rest of the media? Even NPR has sold out to some degree. It appears you have a direct line to the truth. Just wondering where you are. Best wishes.

A comment on that link you had to "How to tell if the war is going well." According to a Jordanian co-worker of mine, who made it out of Kuwait during the first Gulf War, says that Saddam doesn't care a lick for Basra. He never had much control over the people there. He guessed Saddam is probably saying, "If you want it, you can have it" and that Saddam is hoping we get snagged up there.

BBC is reporting the Rumaila oil fields to be not 'completely secure.'

Strange the Iraqis haven't blown a single bridge?

It's not strange, it defies all military logic.

Iraq, we are your liberators. Don't you understand, we want to help bring peace and democracy to your country. Probably what George Bush would say. But, judging from the actions of the Iraqis, they don't want to be liberated.

Possibility that US "may target Iraqi television & radio."

Iraq, we are your liberators. Don't you understand, we want to help bring peace and democracy to your country. Probably what George Bush would say. But, judging from the actions of the Iraqis, they don't want to be liberated.

On the bridges thing...

Well it occurs to me, you could (if you were the Iraqis) wait to blow the bridges until after you're confident the invading army's spearheads have crossed, so trapping them completely out of supply and closer to your best troops in Baghdad who would have (presumably) nice short supply lines.

Tricky to pull off tho', one would think.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about this strategy and tactics stuff, I'm just some guy on the 'net.

This is the best site I've found for objective reporting!

Here is an interesting site, be warned, the photos are horrible, especially of the children. This is what war does to kids!

http://www.muslimwakeup.com/warspecialcoverage.htm

Valpo Joe, I fail to see a connection between Saddam lacking control over Basra and Saddam expecting us to get snagged up there. I'm no expert here, but wouldn't it be more intelligent to depend on cities under one's control to bog down the enemy?

"Delivery of humanitarian aid".. does that include tossing it in by ballista and catapult?

That's the only relatively safe way anyone's gonna get aid into Umm Qatr and Basra today. (Aerial delivery would have to be by B-52 to get the aircraft out of AAA range, and that would just spread the parcels all over Iraq, Iran and parts of Saudi Arabia.)

BBC reporter with British forces reports confronting a 'militia force' with the capacity to block a supply road to the N through a town for several hours.

Safwan, Iraq- Francesco Battistini -
14.00 hours Italy

I still have before my eyes the image of 25 vehicles traveling with headlights off and duct tape obscuring the tail lights from Iraqi observation. They were heading for a camp in the middle of the desert surrounded by land mines. It’s the only place that's secure, the British tell us, to spend the night. We slept in that camp for 3 hours last night.

Is the US going to get caught by one of the oldest military tricks in the books? Get drawn in, and then flanked. Supply lines cut off? They are "capturing" all these Iraqis who are surrendering without weapons, or with very few weapons. Then they let most of them go? They will have an entire army behind them. Now I am no military expert, but I did watch "Braveheart."

On the bridges thingy: never let the other guy cross your obstacles, including rivers. Once he's across, it's damn difficult to convince him to go back whence he came.

On Basra: inducing the coalition to get bogged down in Basra is brilliant. The city is Shi'ite, quite unfriendly to the secular regime of Saddam Hussein.

Gaining Basra has twofold importance: first, it is a crucial port city (despite what is now being claimed) of over one million. Second, it has propaganda significance; being a Shi'ite city, one can imagine the populace greeting their liberators with (perhaps only temporary) ecstasy.

And since it is Shi'ite, Hussein couldn't give a flying **** whether or not it winds up getting levelled by coalition bombs.

Is this a new military definition?

No, we also used it in Vietnam when describing the countryside.

As-Salyiah, Qatar (Usa Command Center) - Luigi Offeddu - 12.15 Italy

I’m seeing increasing numbers of aircraft transporting reinforcements to the front as well as columns of tanks. It seems to demonstrate that During the last 48 hours, tension has risen.

Looks like those Republicans supporting Saddam in Iraq are tougher than Rummy's political advisers expected. This ain't South Carolina and there's no Bob Jones there Duhbya!

Support our troops, bring 'em home! Cancel the B2 and SDI projects and give these brave men and women a good raise and benefits, especially the veterans of Bush WarI.

Raed isn't current, but he's still in the game.

The British have controlled Belfast, Derry and South Armagh for quite a long time. Doesn't mean they haven't faced continuing guerilla attacks in those places. Not that I'm drawing comparisons between the IRA and the Saddam Fedayeen, obviously the IRA had much greater staying power because of some sympathetic communities, which the Fedayeen are going to lack in southern Iraq.

gttim, it seems to me that the US has committed two of the most cardinal sins of warfare.

First, they totally underestimated the enemy, but secondly and more important, they totally overestimated themselves.

Iraq doesn't need an army in the rear of the coalition forces (though it helps); it has 6 or more divisions (coalition claims notwithstanding) lying across the Euphrates, all along their right flank from Basra to Baghdad.

The coalition is still going to win, but it is going to take some brilliant manouver in the next few hours to prevent significant numbers of casualties.

But if they try to cross the Euphrates with less than 2 divisions, it might well become a total fiasco.

The question on my mind: how much would the roads and bridges be disrupted by Iraq blowing up their dams on the Euphrates? Iraq is famously flat (Ur and Chaldea, anyone?) and I wonder if they decided that the bridges were more useful to tempt the US into, say, an Nasiriyah, to try and clear those birdges.

Did I hear on NPR that we've given up on using the an Nasiriyah bridges? That's more insane than not blowing bridges, so it can't be right.

Also, add my mad props to Sean to the chorus of praise. This site is the only place that gets through the fog of war. :)

girmudgeon, keep up those posts. That info about columns of tanks and reinforcements by air is significant. Tensions have risen? I bet a lot of people are near panic now.

Not Gen Franks, though; at this morning's media briefing, he was very cool given the situation. This man is one cool customer; there's no panic in his command post.

The Oval Office is another matter.

BBC Wire:

UK's Desert Rats withdraw from Basra after encountering fierce resistance.

USA to target Iraqi radio and tv.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

The Fedayeen are the problem, not the regular Iraqi military.

"While regular Iraqi units in the south seem to have offered only sporadic resistance, many just melting away ahead of the US and British advance, groups of Iraqi irregulars have emerged from hiding to ambush coalition forces."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2880565.stm

Great site, but you could wake-up earlier already ;-)

BTW Nazi-germany didn't want to be liberated either. Glad we did afterall.

–Titus (NL)

1,300 families flee Mosul after allied bombings.

http://www.repubblica.it/news/ired/ultimora/rep_nazionale_n_351473.html

On the Nasiriyah bridges:

Giving up on using them isn't as nonsensical as it may sound. Yes, grabbing hold of a bridge is always a good idea, if you can pull it off. Seems that won't happen though, at least not for now.

They may try to force a crossing further upstream, using engineering equipment, or (chancy) they may leave a blocking force at Basra and try to send a force up the eastern bank of the Tigris.

The latter is very risky, because under the circumstances, you'd need a rather large blocking force to keep Basra bottled up. Also, supply would be a nightmare, as it would have to come all the way from Kuwait, until Umm Qasr is secured and the port is open to traffic.

But for now, there is a more critical supply problem.. I have run out of food group #5, and have to run to the store.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov confirms that Turkish troops have been in Iraq for more than 48 hours.

Ivanov speculates that this may set off a chain reaction and cause the Iraq conflict to spiral into regional conflict.

http://www.repubblica.it/news/ired/ultimora/rep_nazionale_n_351466.html

Off course, the only winners in this war concerning oil prices are we know who ...

maybe some public pressure to force the Bush clan to donate all profits from his oil businesses ought to be pursued and go directly to a fond for the soldiers that have fallen on duty. It should be duly demanded and expected....

Fedayeen means 'one who sacrifices himself". If the Iraqis have learned anything from the last war, it is that to fight the 'coalition' forces face to face is suicide. Far better to fight a guerilla war, for it is a recoginized fact of warfare that a regular army cannot win against a determined guerilla army. For more info, read John Keegan.

Cheers.

PM Blair states that Baghdad must be taken as soon as possible (Corriere)

PM Blair states that Baghdad must be taken as soon as possible (Corriere)

[
Director George Tenet got the tip shortly before 3 p.m. (11 p.m. Baghdad time). He raced down the George Washington Parkway to the Pentagon, bursting in on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he met with his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
]

No telephone?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/889577.asp#BODY

Hi Sean-Paul, this guide (link below) can contribute to your analysis somewhere down the line, equally might open eyes for anyone else interested in the origins of the OIL (Operation Iraq Liberation) enterprise, if you allow me call that, here is a piece:

THIRTY-YEAR ITCH
"In 1975, while Akins was ambassador in Saudi Arabia, an article headlined “Seizing Arab Oil” appeared in Harper’s. The author, who used the pseudonym Miles Ignotus, was identified as “a Washington-based professor and defense consultant with intimate links to highlevel U.S. policymakers.” The article outlined, as Akins puts it, “how we could solve all our economic and political problems by taking over the Arab oil fields [and] bringing in Texans and Oklahomans to operate them.” Simultaneously, a rash of similar stories appeared in other magazines and newspapers. “I knew that it had to have been the result of a deep background
briefing,” Akins says. “You don’t have eight people coming up with the same screwy idea at the same time, independently.
“Then I made a fatal mistake,” Akins continues. “I said on television that anyone who would propose that is either a madman, a criminal, or an agent of the Soviet Union.” Soon afterward, he says, he learned that the background briefing had been conducted by his boss, then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Akins was fired later that year."

Take a look at An Insider's Guide to this War which includes other articles by the likes of Robert Dreyfuss, Edward Said & Robin Cook etc.

while the world is in agony, (your) The Agonist seems to be a worthy struggle, thanks for bringing people light, these are dark times!!

[
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has also personally signed more than 170 "emergency foreign intelligence warrants," three times the number authorized in the preceding 23 years, according to recent congressional testimony.
]

US Steps Up Secret Surveillance
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0324-02.htm

BBC reporting an 'apparent' British fatality near Al Zubayf, south of Basra.

First off, let me add my kudos. this is a remarkable use of the Internet's technology. Big, big ups to the Agonist.

The decision to target the Radio and TV infrastructure is worth commenting on. I've heard numerous analysts say that keeping the broadcast system intact, along with the rest of Iraq's infrastructure, was a primary concern for the immediate rebuilding of teh nation, and for allowing the Coalition to communicate with the populace at the beginning fo the occupation.

The fact that , it seems, the Coalition feels to the need to take out Iraqi Radio and TV this early tells me something about their concerns re: the attitude of the Iraqi people and the effect Iraqi broadcasting is having on it.

The notion that this invasion would be welcomed with open arms was a poor miscalculation by our intelligence, and this would seem to be a small, but not insignificant, marker of that.

Confirmed.

FOXNews: 4 large explosions in Baghdad -- rock entire city

A slight correction to my above post. It should read:

"I've heard numerous analysts say that keeping the broadcast system intact, along with the rest of Iraq's communications infrastructure, was a primary concern for the immediate rebuilding of the nation,"

Map Resource:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/iraq.html

BBC crawl: busloads of Syrians moving to assist Iraqis

BBC crawl: busloads of Syrians moving to assist Iraqis

Oy. Getting uglier all the time.

Well, look at it this way -- at least Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone will be able to make good movies about this when it's over.

"Akbar don't surf!"

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/international/worldspecial/24CND-HELI.html

2 Apaches Are Down and 30 Others Retreat in Central Iraq

...the Apaches are suddenly coming under attack from relatively low-technology weaponry.

To twist a phrase, perhaps they are "Striking back at the Empire"?

I am truly surprised to see images of Iraqi troops hanging out casually triumphant next to a downed Apache helicopter. Not for the war, but how lame is it that it wasn't blown to pieces the moment the crew was clear of it. That technology of great value and if the Iraqis can sell to the Chinese or others life will be even more complicated. Leaving that aside, the propaganda value of the thing as a symbol of American technological arrogance and impotence is very great. Why has it not been destroyed?

Just read the MSNBC piece on the first strike, and was struck by the line, "...Saddam, probably accompanied by his demonic sons Uday and Qusay, was sleeping in a bunker...".

So much for objective journalism - unless I missed, at some point, the story which revealed that Saddam has had carnal knowledge of Satan's emissaries, and raised the hellish spawn of that union as his own. It's presumably only a matter of time before it comes around again, though.

I agree with whoever said that NPR is even selling out to a degree. I've been madly skimming the New York Times, Reuters, BBC, alternative college or community radio stations, NPR, and the New Yorker, as well as the entire Internet, to try to find some fellow souls. I feel disappointed in the entire American press. I feel disappointed to be an American in yet another imperialistic war. I feel sad to be manipulated by the government's public relations game. Thanks for being here.

What happened to the Iraqi general who surrendered with his division? This was being reported by all the media, but I haven't heard a word since. Was this story planted as disinformation? Did American media lift it from Aljazeera or were they fed disinformation by the administration? Isn't it against the law for the government to mislead American media? Why haven't I heard any more about this story?