Switzerland in Iraq 04.24.03
K. George

National Review Online's editor-at- large Jonah Goldberg, a self-confessed Swissophile, says the country renowned for its scenic vistas and chocolates and resolutely neutral in international affairs is an ideal model for Iraq:

"Switzerland is peaceful now, but it was formed by warring tribes of Germans, Italians, French, and Romansch, and divided along religious lines in a strategically vital region of Europe not unlike Iraq's place in the Middle East. It seems to me the Swiss model is almost precisely what the Iraqis need."

In Goldberg's view, more cantons would mean more politicians and that is a good thing:

"If we slice up Iraq into a bunch of different cantons, each local area will produce its own politicians, who will inevitably point out the flaws of other politicians. That's good stuff. The more bickering the better, because that forces honesty and accountability (something people who want more bipartisanship in America should realize)."

Bases in Iraq? 04.22.03
K. George

A number of news organizations report the U.S. plans to establish up to four military bases in Iraq as"part of a redeployment of forces which can transform its capability to wield power in West Asia."

According to the New York Times, the bases planned for Iraq are part of a larger expansion of American military presence on a scale unprecedented in modern history:

"...it is plain that since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a concerted diplomatic and military effort to win permission for U.S. forces to operate from the formerly communist nations of Eastern Europe, across the Mediterranean, throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and across Central Asia, from the periphery of Russia to Pakistan's ports on the Indian Ocean."

A Blog for Iraq 04.17.03
K. George

Blogger Jeff Jarvis (BuzzMachine, War In Iraq weblog) wants to enlist fellow bloggers to help Iraq start "weblog newspapers." Writes Jarvis:

"The beauty of weblogging is that it is the world's cheapest -- no, history's cheapest -- means of publishing. Weblogging brings the power of the press down to the people. And these people need it. Of course, the audience in Iraq would be small at the start: tiny. But the audience who can connect in Iraq and the audience elsewhere in the world who read this would be influential. Thus Iraqis would gain a voice in their country and in the world. And this instant free press would exercise muscles of expression that have atrophied in Iraq. It would teach them how to report and comment and how to find the truth from beyond their borders."

Here are all 13, courtesy of the Guardian:

1. Iraq must be democratic.
2. A future government should not be based on communal identity.
3. A future government should be organised as a democratic federal system, but on the basis of countrywide consultation.
4. The rule of law must be paramount.
5. Iraq must be built on respect for diversity, including respect for the role of women.
6. The meeting discussed the role of religion in state and society.
7. The meeting discussed the principle that Iraqis must choose their leaders, not have them imposed from outside.
8. That political violence must be rejected and that Iraqis must immediately organise themselves for the task of reconstruction at both local and national levels.
9. That Iraqis and the coalition must work together to tackle the immediate issues of restoring security and basic services.
10. That the Ba'ath party must be dissolved and its effect on society must be eliminated.
11. That there should be an open dialogue with all national political groups to bring them into the process.
12. That the meeting condemned the looting which had taken place and the destruction of documents.
13. That the Nasiriyah meeting voted to hold another meeting in 10 days in a location to be determined with additional Iraqi participants to discuss procedures for developing an Iraqi interim authority.

Cultural Tragedy 04.15.03
K. George

The photograph says it all. The man sits on an ancient stone tablet, head in hands in a gesture of grief, debris at his feet. He works -- or did work -- at Iraq's national museum in Baghdad -- a repository of Mesopotamian artifacts. During hours of frenzied looting, cultural treasures were pillaged from museums and libraries across Iraq. What couldn't be taken was destroyed. The floor of the national museum is carpeted with shards of smashed pottery and tablets, and decapitated statues. Reuter's reports priceless antiquities like the Vase of Uruk and the Harp of Ur are gone.

In other parts of Baghdad, Iraq's history was being consigned to flames. In a piece for the Independent, Robert Fisk describes the looting and burning of Iraq's national library and the Library of the Korans. He writes of finding historical documents scattered in the streets:

"Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad."

Part of the world's cultural heritage has been irreparably lost by this plundering of Iraqi antiquities says Paul Zimansky, Professor of Archeology at Boston University. Zimansky says the loss is on a scale comparable to the ransacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders and the burning of the Library of Alexandria.

The U.S. has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent or stop the looting. A criticism echoed by Zimansky:

"This is a terrific black eye for the United States. It's something we're going to have difficulty living down -- not just for the next couple of years but for centuries. This is going to be remembered. This is the kind of thing that is a permanent mark. That it's going to be there long after Saddam and Bush and the politics of our age are footnotes."

Is Syria Next? 04.14.03
K. George

Is Syria next after Iraq?

The Bush administration has hurled diplomatic brickbats at Iraq's Ba'athist neighbor, accusing the government of President qua dictator Bashar al-Assad of sheltering remnants of Saddam's regime and manufacturing chemical weapons. And although it is not included in the troika of "Axis of Evil" countries, "rolling back" Syria has long been advocated by Richard Perle, one of the intellectual architects of President Bush's approach to Iraq. Also, Capital Hill lawmakers say they will file a bill that, if passed, will allow the president "to impose sanctions if Damascus fails to meet US demands."

House of Cards 04.14.03
K. George

The Pentagon gave its troops in Iraq decks of playing cards bearing photographs of members of the former Ba'athist regime wanted by the United States. Saddam Hussein is pictured on the ace of spades and his youngest son, Qusay, occupies the ace of clubs. One of Hussein's loyalists perhaps most familiar to the American public due to his frequent press conferences, former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, is the eight of spades.

According to the Hindustan Times, an organization called the Heart Care Foundation of India claims its pioneering use of playing cards as a medium for disseminating information inspired the Pentagon. "I am glad to note that U.S.-led Allied forces in Iraq have now adopted a similar strategy to capture Saddam," said the group's chairman.

The Image of Freedom 04.11.03
W. Thomson

Donald Rumsfeld today attacked the media, saying when he picked up a newspaper this morning "I couldn't believe it. I read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest. And it just was 'henny-penny the sky was falling! I've never seen anything like it.' And here is a country that's being liberated." He characterized the vacuum of power that has swept much of Baghdad as "untidiness," a natural outcome of years of repression.

However, there is some skepticism about the images that were broadcast around the world yesterday. The close-up scene of cheering Iraqis made for dramatic television, but the shot from across the street gives a very different image - in a photo that was attributed to Reuters - and has been making the rounds of blogs, and indy-media sites.

''It's classic for TV reporting to gravitate toward iconic images,'' says Barbie Zelizer, author of ''Journalism After September 11'' and professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania - as published on Common Dreams website.

FAIR goes farther, asking the question if the Pentagon is not merely manipulating the press, but threatening and targeting their lives.

Pre-emptive War 04.11.03
K. George

India is couching justification for a possible "pre-emptive" war against Pakistan in language that sounds like it was written by a Bush speechwriter.

India's foreign minister says the Subcontinent has a "fitter case" for military action against Pakistan than the U.S. did vis-à-vis Iraq because its Muslim neighbor "has weapons of mass destruction, shelters terrorists and lacks democracy." U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell has rejected the parallels with Iraq, but has pledged to "stay engaged" in forging peace between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

A war of words has heated up between India and Pakistan since Muslim guerillas massacred 24 Hindu villagers in the disputed province of Kashmir last month -- an event all but eclipsed in the Western press by war in Iraq.

Baghdad Viewed from the Left 04.10.03
W. Thomson

The images of Iraqis celebrating their liberation from the Hussein regime represent not only a victory for the American military, but a victory for those who argued for the war from the beginning. It looks as if the worst fighting is over, and hawks are feeling vindicated that the dire predictions and arguments against war - broadened conflict, terrorist blowback, bloody street-to-street fighting, mass civilian deaths - have not yet occurred. William Saffire writes that this is VI Day, and the "jubilation of enslaved people tasting liberty drives home the wisdom of just wars." In a recent poll, approval of the war jumped to 77 percent.

In an article for Slate, Christopher Hitchens makes fun of protesters against the war in Iraq, writing that the their demands were met despite the war:

"No War on Iraq," they said-and there wasn't a war on Iraq. Indeed, there was barely a "war" at all. "No Blood for Oil," they cried, and the oil wealth of Iraq has been duly rescued from attempted sabotage with scarcely a drop spilled."

But the left is not universally convinced that the Monday morning quarterbacking can begin yet. Headlines on the site Antiwar.com read like a list of things that could still go wrong:

- Rumsfeld: Victory Close, But More Will Die
- Turkey Threatens as Kurds Take Kirkuk
- Returning Exiled Shi'ite Leader, Aide Killed by Mob in Najaf
- Who is Next on America's List?
- US Tells Iran, Syria, North Korea to 'Learn from Iraq'
- Much of Iraq Lies Outside Control of Allies
- Rumsfeld Tells Syria to 'Stop Helping Saddam's Regime' "

Antiwar activist and Oscar winner Michael Moore writes:

"It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in colonizing Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a blunder of such magnitude -- and we will pay for it for years to come...

So, where are all those weapons of mass destruction that were the pretense for this war?"

Moveon.org has moved on, yesterday calling its members to lobby Congress to crack down on corporate tax dodgers, ducking the war altogether.

ANSWER takes a shriller tone:

"Having slaughtered and maimed thousands of Iraqi people, the U.S./British invasion forces are celebrating the use of their massive, overwhelming and brutal military power to crush resistance to their invasion of Iraq."

Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow writes in his blog that the easy part is over, and points out that there is still a lot to be done in Iraq. "In the meantime, congratulations. You've just adopted approximately 23 million Iraqis."

Poll Position 04.10.03
K. George

The president is reaping a political boost from the war in Iraq. The most recent Gallup Poll has his approval rating an impressive 70%, and according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, 76% of the American public believe the "current situation in Iraq is worth going to war over." Still, as Bush Senior discovered, the political benefits of battlefield victories can prove ephemeral -- especially if the nation's economy continues to head south.

Dems Meet 04.10.03
K. George

War coverage is sucking up all the oxygen in the media universe so it is no surprise that all the Democratic presidential aspirants appearing together for the first time got little ink or airplay. Of course, given the strong anti-war stances of some of the candidates -- which are at variance with current polls showing overwhelming public support for the war -- lack of publicity is perhaps a bit of a blessing. Especially on a day cable news networks are airing ad infinitum video of jubilant Iraqis cheering the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein.

There was little new at last evening's candidates' forum sponsored by the Children's Defense Fund. The contenders emphasized issues Democrats traditionally run strong on such as health care and education, and were split on the war.

The most vociferously pro-war, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards, seized on the crumbling of Saddam Hussein's regime to hawk their support for the war and the troops. "History teaches us that if you leave a brutal, immoral dictator with weapons of mass destruction, eventually he will use them," said Lieberman who helped craft a resolution authorizing force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Edwards, who voted for the resolution, was equally unequivocal, "I not only support the troops, we all do, I also support the cause."

Most of the anti-candidates held to their views -- events in Baghdad notwithstanding -- but had "little to say" about the war.

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, a war opponent who has criticized Massachusetts Senator John Kerry for allegedly being unclear in his position on Iraq, did acknowledge the war ended the government of Saddam Hussein. Observed Dean, "We've gotten rid of him. I suppose that's a good thing." Dean did criticize the financial burdens imposed by the war, a theme echoed by Kerry.

Googling the Opposition 04.9.03
K. George

I used my favorite search engine Google, to learn more about key Iraqi opposition groups. As a starting point I "Googled" the "six main Iraqi factions" that have received funds from the U.S. government. Click on the appropriate link below to obtain more information about a group or its leader.

Google Search Results http://www.google.com/:

Organization	Leader
Iraqi National Congress	Ahmed Chalabi
Constitutional Monarchy Movement	Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq	Mohammed Baquir al-Hakim
Kurdistan Democratic Party	Massoud Barzani
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan	Jalal Talabani
Iraqi National Accord	Ayad Allawi

Google News Search Results http://news.google.com/:

Organization	Leader
Iraqi National Congress	Ahmed Chalabi
Constitutional Monarchy Movement	Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq	Mohammed Baquir al-Hakim
Kurdistan Democratic Party	Massoud Barzani
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan	Jalal Talabani
Iraqi National Accord	Ayad Allawi

The Man who Would be President? 04.8.03
K. George

Ahmed Chalabi, banker cum opposition leader, and aspiring head of a post-Saddam government is back on Iraqi soil for the first time in decades.

His fitness for the role is subject of much intense debate and speculation -- even within the Bush administration. The Pentagon and its neoconservative allies, in casting about for "our man in Baghdad" see Chalabi fitting the bill. Not only is he ideologically well-credentialed, moving in similar circles as Perle, Wolfowitz, Cheney et al (and like Jay Garner has ties with the conservative Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), he heads an opposition group -- the London Based Iraqi National Congress -- and hails from a prestigious Shi'ia family.

Max Singer, Chalabi backer and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute penned a case for Chalabi in a National Review piece published last June:

"Chalabi is a modern man of the West, who founded a successful software company in London and who understands democracy deep in his bones. What makes him truly exceptional is that he also continues to be deeply a man of the East, with the sensibilities and loyalties of his ancient Baghdad Arab and Muslim roots."

"With support from the CIA and more than $10 million of his own and his family's money, Chalabi's INC created an open political opposition movement in northern Iraq from 1993-1996, operating newspapers, radio stations, and a lively political process involving Iraqis from all parts of the country. It also created a small military force that succeeded — with help from one of the Kurdish militias — in attacking and destroying two divisions of the Iraqi army."

Iraqi Interim Leader in Waiting: Jay Garner 04.8.03
W. Thomson

Meet the next leader of Iraq: Jay Garner, a 64-year-old with a background in both sides of the porous public-private world of national defense and corporate defense contracting. Until Donald Rumsfeld tapped Garner to govern in the aftermath of the war, he was president of L3, missile guidance systems supplier to the Pentagon, and before that, a general in the Army.

Fortune Magazine writes that he is "an almost perfect fit for the job." Garner says his success will be measured by how quickly he's out, and Iraq is handed over to Iraqis, but Garner's critics feel that any time he spends as head of Iraq sends the wrong message.

The Guardian writes, "There is no argument among Arab opinion formers, who with rare unanimity have been condemning his appointment as another sign of American contempt for Iraqi feelings." A profile in Al Jazeera focuses on Garner's tight ties to the Israeli military and a statement he signed that lays blame on Palestinians for recent violence.

Garner's top qualification is his work in military administration of humanitarian assistance, under Operation Provide Comfort, to Kurds in Northern Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1991.

Media Backlash 04.7.03
W. Thomson

Recently, the peace group Move-On directed its members to write their local newspapers, taking the oldest form of affecting what appears in the paper: Letters to the Editor. Other groups are going farther, lobbying to change the tone of coverage from the front page to the hourly newscast. Following the lead of the Pentagon and PR firms, anti-war activists have realized that winning means victory in the propaganda war.

The online news site, Indymedia allows users to document their own actions, and in theory does an end-run around the traditional channels. GNN has the slick look of a corporate news station. At the same time, activists are getting smarter about how to get their messages through to traditional media, training to write press releases, speak in soundbites, and give a good television interview.

The long running argument over liberal or conservative bias in the media is giving way to those who hope to influence how the stories are told and adopt the tactics of lobbyists, not media critics.

A Scene From Hell 04.7.03
K. George

The convoy of Kurdish fighters with American Special Forces escorts had just wound its way to the top of a hill above the town of Dibagah in northern Iraq when all hell broke loose. Two American F-14s "came in low," one dropped a bomb, and a roar and flash later 18 on the ground were dead, the worst "friendly fire" incident of the war to date. The BBC's John Simpson was 10 yards from where the bomb fell. Bleeding from shrapnel wounds, and with one of his eardrums perforated, Simpson filed a live report from the scene literally moments after the explosion:

"This is a scene from hell. All the vehicles are on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground."

Hearts and Minds 04.4.03
K. George

Through centuries of empire building, the Brits have apparently fine-tuned the science of winning the hearts and minds of subjugated peoples. Colonel Philip Wilkinson, formerly of Her Majesty's Royal Army, distills the essence of the British approach:

"First, we have football matches, then we have tea parties, and then somehow our soldiers go out and meet the local ladies."

Now some in the British press have glommed on to this theme -- minus the ladies and tea parties-- and are regaling the British public with stories of barrette clad troops engaging the local lads in a friendly game of football (soccer). And pointed contrasts are made with the American grunts, cap-a-pie in body armor, warily keeping their distance from Iraqi civilians. Says one Royal Marine quoted in the Evening Standard:

"We want to show that we are here as liberators, not conquerors. The football match was a marvellous confidence-building measure. Now we patrol in berets, rather than helmets, we never fly our flag and we try to look as unwarlike as possible."

In the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, Ari Shavit lays responsibility for the war on Iraq on a handful of neoconservative thinkers and a village mentality that prevails in Washington, the "small town that happens to run an empire." He writes that in the Washington mindset, the war is less about regime change within the borders of Iraq than about changing the dynamics of the region. "This war will enhance the place of America in the world for the coming generation," the author quotes Charles Krauthammer, summing up both the ideology and the optimism of many in DC.

Other conservatives are counting on the war to redraw the power map of the Middle East from Iran to OPEC.

An Indian commentator suggests the strategy is a risky miscalculation. "It is fairly certain that the foundations of a new, highly unstable international political and economic order have been laid," writes Ashish Vachhani. According to his interpretation, the United States has seized the responsibility for maintaining global stability by undermining international law and organizations. How long it can support the new order will rely on the nation's ability to coerce, convince, and complete its goals, but it won't have the international community to fall back on if it fails.

Dueling Fatwas 04.4.03
K. George

There is confusion swirling around claims that a fatwa -- religious degree -- was issued by Iraq's supreme Shi'ia cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Mirza Ali Sistani. The fatwa instructed Iraqi Muslims to stay in their homes and not impede any of the coalition forces. If true, this would contradict a fatwa allegedly decreed by the ayatollah earlier this week commanding Muslims to fight "infidel followers who have invaded our homeland."

Yesterday, the U.S said the cleric had issued the fatwa instructing his followers not to resist. Now, there are reports that the ayatollah denies issuing this second fatwa.

Relief 04.3.03
K. George

Franklin Graham, son of prominent evangelist Billy Graham, garnered notoriety last year when he called the Islamic faith "wicked, violent and not of the same god." Despite his reservations about the monotheistic cousin to Judaism and Christianity, Franklin Graham wants the relief agency he runs to distribute aid in Iraq.

Some American Muslim groups are appalled.

"It's particularly disturbing that a group headed by a man who openly states he believes the faith of Islam is evil would enter into a Muslim country in the wake of an invading army," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesmen for The Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In an opinion piece in MSNBC.com, Ira Rifkin warns that evangelical groups like Graham's that want to rush to the aid of the Iraqis would incite Muslims:

"The problem is the handouts will come with not-so-subtle Christian proselytizing. In the Muslim world, that will only strengthen the belief there that the attack on Iraq is, above all else, an attack on Islam."

Today's Washington Post reports that some "jubilant" (and presumably cheering) crowds did greet U.S. soldiers in Najaf:

"An enthusiastic welcome for U.S. forces in Najaf turned jubilant today, as several thousand Iraqis braved sporadic firefights for what one Special Forces officer described as "the Macy's Day parade," applauding a U.S. patrol that pushed close to a religious shrine at the center of the city."

Protest Strip 04.3.03
K. George

"The Boondocks" doesn't pull its political punches and last Saturday's strip was apparently too provocative for a number of newspapers -- including the Boston Globe -- that declined to run it.

Superimposed over the panel was a message from "The Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder stating his opposition to President Bush and the war in Iraq and "the continued production of movies starring Cuba Gooding Jr." Click here to view the entire strip.

Politics on the funny pages is obviously nothing new. Doonesbury has been a thorn in conservative sides for decades -- and some newspapers have exiled it to the editorial pages. On the right, the irrepressible Mallard Fillmore pokes fun of various and sundry liberal icons. Further back, the denizens of Walt Kelly's Okefenokee Swamp satirized political figures of his day. For example, a wolf called "Simple Joe Malarkey" was clearly modeled after Joe McCarthy. Even as innocuous a cartoon as "Annie" delved into politics. In the 1930s, some newspapers refused to run the strip because of cartoonists Harold Gray's "habit of using it to criticize the New Deal."

Reality War 04.2.03
W. Thomson

The median age of someone who watches CBS News: 59. MTV viewer: 22. The largest age groups on active duty in the American military are 19, 20, 21, and 22 year olds.

MTV is their network, demographically speaking, and while MTV's top headline today isn't about Iraq (It's JA RULE AIMS AT EMINEM), the section entitled At War With Iraq, brings some of the war to younger viewers. When the war broke out, MTV postponed live coverage of twenty-something college kids on vacation to cover twenty-something enlisted soldiers at war in Iraq, of whom about 70 percent don't have a college education.

Writes Aaron Ladage for the Iowa State paper:

Forget all of the political analysts and retired military officers strategizing on what the United States should do next. And eliminate CNN's embedded reporters from the battlefield. What do you have left? A ground war, fought primarily by the young people of our country. The same young people who, only a few short weeks ago, were just like any of us. They listened to music. They went to movies. They partied.

Ladage identifies MTV as a perfect vehicle to bring news to the generation who will inherit the world forged by this conflict. He calls on MTV to bring back their coverage of the war, relevant he says to this generation precisely because it is this generation who is fighting it, and "a start in educating a generation typically apathetic about world issues."

MTV has experience taking on issues beyond music videos. For the 2000 elections, MTV launched the Rock the Vote campaign, not pushing any specific political party, but the notion that young people should have a voice. MTV follows up that effort with a page on activism around the war. It publishes letters from its young viewers as well as a Take Action section that suggests if you are against the war, you can get involved with organizations like United for Peace or Move On, and if you are for the war, "You can enlist in one of the branches of the military."

War Tunes 04.1.03
K. George

Inquirer music critic Peter Dobrin dissects that aural assault that is the musical lead-in to the evening news:

CBS cues up a "surging electronic wall of sound that seems to use the beating rotors of attack helicopters as its rhythmic inspiration." While Fox prefers blaring "hard-rock instrumentals." The CNN soundtrack is a "throbbing, bellicose buildup of sounds."

The musical accompaniment to NPR's special war coverage is positively laid back by comparison and according to Dobrin, "telegraphs the idea that something important is about to be said, without being especially militaristic, patriotic or mournful."

Russian Intelligence 04.1.03
K. George

A blogger who calls himself "Venik" posts what he claims are English translations of actual Russian military intelligence reports on the war. You can read them at http://www2.iraqwar.ru/?userlang=en.

Venik says the reports come via an anonymous source within the GRU, Russia's "military-intelligence arm."

A post from yesterday claims that coalition casualties are higher than what has been reported by the American and British press:

"Based on the radio intercepts and internal information networks of the US field hospitals as of this morning the coalition losses include no less than 100 killed US servicemen and at least 35 dead British soldiers. Additionally, some 22 American and 11 British soldiers are officially considered to be missing in action and the whereabouts of another 400 servicemen are being established. The number of wounded has exceeded 480 people."

The same report sounds a cautionary note for Iraqi forces:

"Russian military analysts are advising the Iraqi military command against excessive optimism. There is no question that the US 'blitzkrieg' failed to take control of Iraq and to destroy its army. It is clear that the Americans got bogged down in Iraq and the military campaign hit a snag. However, the Iraqi command is now in danger of underestimating the enemy. For now there is no reason to question the resolve of the Americans and their determination to reach the set goal – complete occupation of Iraq."

100 Bin Ladens 04.1.03
K. George

The comments of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak before a group of soldiers in the Egyptian city of Suez:

"When it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible consequences."

"Instead of having one (Osama) bin Laden, we will have 100 bin Ladens."

Dirty Fighting from the American Revolution to Fourth Generation Warfare 04.1.03
W. Thomson

Some American military analysts blame the slower-than-expected progress of the war on the unconventional military tactics of the Iraqis. An elite American force has been told to gather evidence of war crimes, including troops using human shields and fighters holing up in hospitals.

The Pentagon and others are calling these acts dishonorable and criminal. Time columnist Michael Eliot writes that Americans practically invented guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War but now express shock that their adversaries would employ such tactics. Unconventional warfare is the equalizer that a weak adversary has to use against the strong, he writes. "Our leaders in uniform would serve us better if they explained that, increasingly, guerrilla wars are the ones we will have to fight. That education is overdue."

Chuck Spinney's group Defense and the National Interest focuses on the nature of war, and effectiveness of our armies. Fourth Generational Warfare makes a case that the wars of the future will be fought on new battlefields. Targeting civilians is a part of that -- Sept. 11 was an example -- and the doctrine of 4GW argues that overwhelming military might can be outmaneuvered by small agile forces.

Tough Nut to Crack 03.31.03
K George

One of the designers of Saddam Hussein's underground shelters says it is impervious to anything short of a direct hit from a nuclear bomb. Civil engineer Karl Esser worked for a German company in the 1980s that designed a $60 million bunker built underneath Hussein's Baghdad palace. According to Esser, the bunker has a 6 1/2 foot thick ceiling and was "built to survive, from 650 feet away, a nuclear blast from a bomb like the one dropped at Hiroshima, and temperatures of more than 570 degrees Fahrenheit."

Esser is skeptical the bunker will be penetrated by any of the vaunted "bunker busting" weapons in the U.S. arsenal. "Normally such bunkers can only be taken by ground troops."

Arnett Out 03.31.03
K George

Peter Arnett, who reported live from Baghdad during the onset of the first Gulf War and was there again for the sequel, has had his services "terminated" by NBC, MSNBC and National Geographic. His employers were upset by Arnett telling Iraqi state-controlled television that the U.S.-led coalition war plan had failed because of Iraqi resistance.

Arnett appeared on the Today Show Monday where he proffered this apology of sorts:

"I said in that interview essentially what we all know about the war, that there have been delays in implementing policy, there have been surprises."

"But clearly by giving that interview I created a firestorm in the United States and for that I am truly sorry."

U.S. Moves to Assume Inspection Role, Blix Will Step Down 03.31.03
W. Thomson

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he still believes they would discover the weapons, the avowed cause of the war, when forces moved closer in to Baghdad:

"It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

A debate is waging over which inspection team will do the work. The United States was upset with UNMOVIC for failing to uncover substantial stores of banned weapons in Iraq, and no evidence of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The Bush administration is reportedly assembling an American team as an alternative to the long-establish United Nations group. The United States' team has drawn inspectors away from the U.N. inspection group, frustrating Hans Blix, who says he will step down in June.

The economy of the Mideast is dominated by oil, and oil production there is dominated by OPEC. Iraq is currently a member, but the Heritage Foundation says there's an opportunity for the United States to hobble the cartel. "Iraq's restructuring and privatization of its oil and gas sector could become a model for oil industry privatizations in other OPEC states as well, weakening the cartel's influence over global energy markets," write Ariel Cohen and Gerald Driscoll in a recent commentary issued by the rightwing think tank.

Amity Shlaes writes in an editorial carried in the Financial Times [pay] and the Jewish World Review [free] that state-owned oil is a corrupting force. "If the past few decades have taught us anything, it's that that once today's brave freedom fighter gets oil, he becomes tomorrow's petro-warlord." The United Nations would be vulnerable to corruption as well. She says to ignore Kurdish leaders, if need be, and not to worry about accusations of "Texas on the Tigris."

A Roar and Then a Flash 03.28.03
K. George

Robert Fisk visited a Baghdad marketplace shortly after it was rocked by a lethal explosion possibly caused by a missile. He described the carnage in grisly detail in a commentary he penned for the Independent:

"One man, so shocked by the headless corpses he had just seen, could say only two words. 'Roar, flash,' he kept saying and then closed his eyes so tight that the muscles rippled between them."

Fisk said two American missiles struck the marketplace. The Pentagon speculated the explosion was caused by an errant Iraqi missile or that the Iraqis staged the attack for propoganda purposes.

Update on Nate Thayer 03.28.03
K. George

I received an email from Slate yesterday confirming their Baghdad correspondent, Nate Thayer is fine. The message did not reveal his whereabouts. I assumed he was still somewhere in Iraq.

In his last dispatch (see "Baghdad Bloggers" below), Thayer said Iraqi officials ordered him to leave for Syria by way of a highway being bombarded by the coalition. He refused what he called a "suicide drive."

Today, I was suprised to see a report from Thayer in Slate in which he recounted his harrowing journey from Baghdad to Jordan.

One of Thayer's colleagues, freelance photograph Molly Bingham, is still missing, as are two Newsday journalists, reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer Moises Saman. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, other journalists saw the trio put on a bus bound for either Syria or Jordan.

Al-Jazeera Hacked (Again?) 03.27.03
K. George

The "Freedom Cyber Force Militia," is claiming responsibility for hacking into Al-Jazeera's English language website and replacing it with a webpage containing an image of the American flag.

Click here to view a screen capture of the hacker's page.

It is unclear if this group was responsible for an apparent hacking attack earlier this week that paralyzed both the Al-Jazeera Arabic and English language websites.

Bungled Stories 03.27.03
K. George

"The war is only a week old and already the media has gotten at least 15 stories wrong," writes Greg Mitchell for Editor and Publisher. He singles out television news as the primary culprit. Mitchell is more sanguine about newspaper coverage and says that despite headlines that often seem "shock-and-awe-struck," some newspapers have "displayed a degree of skepticism of claims made by the military and the White House -- what used to be known as 'journalism.'"

Mitchell's 15 misreported stories:

1. Saddam may well have been killed in the first night's surprise attack (March 20).
2. Even if he wasn't killed, Iraqi command and control was no doubt "decapitated" (March 22).
3. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 22).
4. Most Iraqis soldiers will not fight for Saddam and instead are surrendering in droves (March 22).
5. Iraqi citizens are greeting Americans as liberators (March 22).
6. An entire division of 8,000 Iraqi soldiers surrendered en masse near Basra (March 23).
7. Several Scud missiles, banned weapons, have been launched against U.S. forces in Kuwait (March 23).
8. Saddam's Fedayeen militia are few in number and do not pose a serious threat (March 23).
9. Basra has been taken (March 23).
10. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 23).
11. A captured chemical plant likely produced chemical weapons (March 23).
12. Nassiriya has been taken (March 23).
13. Umm Qasr has been taken (March 24).
14. The Iraqi government faces a "major rebellion" of anti-Saddam citizens in Basra (March 24).
15. A convoy of 1,000 Iraqi vehicles and Republican Guards are speeding south from Baghdad to engage U.S. troops (March 25).

Tough Day for Al-Jazeera 03.26.03
K. George

Al-Jazeera suffered another blow Tuesday when, citing "security concerns," The New York Stock Exchange revoked the credentials of two of its reporters.

You may recall the Qatar-based news channel recently ran afoul of The Pentagon for broadcasting video of dead and captured American soldiers (see Will Thomson's entry on "Media At War" on the next page).

Many media watchdog groups have been very critical of the action taken by the stock exchange. The Poynter Institute's Bob Steele said, "it smells bad," and "it appears to be a case of punishing Al-Jazeera for its coverage of the war in Iraq."

Baghdad Bloggers 03.26.03 K. George

			Photo Gallery Today's news photos from around the world.
			Maps Military locations, NPR reporter locations
	Tell Us What's On Your Mind: EMAIL: iraq@wbur.org

I've been reading Nate Thayer's dispatches from Baghdad in Slate. One of the things I like about Thayer is his honesty. He freely admits to being afraid. And more so of the Iraqis than of the cruise missiles:

"Today is also the first time that I am truly frightened. It is not the American bombs I am primarily afraid of. What frightens me and Mary-the name I'll give a photographer with whom I've become inseparable-is the mood of the people. The city is thick with anger and defiance, and we are Americans."

"Iraqi officials are continuing to harass us. I was just told that we will be expelled first thing in the morning. They said we will have to drive to Syria-a 20-hour ride on a highway that we've heard is under bombardment from the coalition. It's a suicide drive, and I am not going to do it. I have about six hours to figure out how to get out of it."

The highway he refers to is, I believe, the same one on which an American missile hit a bus, killing five of its Syrian occupants.

I trolled through Slate's forums searching for clues to his whereabouts. They contained posts from readers also anxious for answers about Thayer, but nothing from the Slate people. I hit another dead-end when I emailed Slate and got an automated response with boilerplate copy thanking me for contacting them.

Presumably he is out of Baghdad and Slate will reveal his whereabouts in the near future.

Speaking of Baghdad bloggers, the pseudonymous Salam Pax has been the subject of favorable reviews in MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, and in numerous blogs as well. It appears opinion in the blogsphere is running more pro than con concerning the question of his authenticity. One blogger, a former UNIX system administrator, even backed up his contention that Pax is probably legitimate with a fairly heady technical analysis of Pax's IP address.

Salam has been watching a good deal of Al-Jazeera lately:

"The images Al-jazeera is broadcasting are beyond any description. First was the attack on (Ansar el Islam) camp in the north of Iraq. Then the images of civilian casualties in Basra city. What was most disturbing are the images from the hospitals. They are simply not prepared to deal with these things. People were lying on the floor with bandages and blood all over. If this is what 'urban warefare' is going to look like we're in for disaster."

After the Fighting Stops, the U.S. or U.N. to Fill the Void? 03.26.03
W. Thomson

A nongovernmental advocacy think tank in Brussels calls on the United States to stand down after the fighting in Iraq stops, and for the United Nations to prepare to lead the country.

The report from the International Crisis Group calls for a United Nations authority to take control "as soon as possible." It says the success of the installed government will hinge on its legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people and advises against two alternate scenarios: the U.S. assuming full authority, and the U.S. installing an interim Iraqi government.

As to the first, "even many U.S. policy-makers acknowledge that it risks alienating Iraqis, exposing Washington to accusations that it nurtures imperial designs and further undermining its posture in the region," the report reads. Secondly, it says that there are no obvious Iraqi candidates that the U.S. could handpick to run the country. The report specifically warns against overseas exiled Iraqis, who it says have already "staked their claim," but who have very limited knowledge and contacts in a complex political society which casts "serious doubt on the degree to which they are genuinely representative."

One of those exiled Iraqis is Kanan Makiya. Yesterday, as a guest on The Connection he argued that the United States should take over briefly, and install a temporary government of Iraqi opposition and exiles. He also said that there needed to be a de-Baathification of the country, [LISTEN] routing out of public life the ideology and promoters of Saddam Hussein's party.

» Read the report (PDF Acrobat file)

Media at War 03.25.03 W. Thomson

Networks yesterday wrestled with the question of whether to air interviews with captured American soldiers. The soldiers were questioned on Iraqi state television. The tape was replayed on Al Jazeera and then picked up by most of the rest of the world. The soldiers were asked in halting English what were their names, where they were from, and why they were in Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld called the tapes humiliating, and as such said that
they were a violation of the Geneva Convention on treatment of
prisoners. Al Jazeera defended the decision to broadcast the tapes,
saying that it was bold of the United States to invoke the Geneva
Conventions while waging a war without U.N. backing. "You can't pick
and choose," an unnamed official said.

The Pentagon asked American media not to play the videos, saying it would be an "unfortunate" decision. Nevertheless, finding them on the web wasn't hard. Many major foreign newspaper websites featured videos or photo galleries of the prisoners and of Iraqi civilian dead as their top stories. Some of the countries like Italy and Spain are America's coalition partners.

In many international newspapers, you start to see a different war being covered, and one that is more graphic. It would be sensationalizing to show these videos to shock, but they may be valuable to many in understanding the entirety of this war and in assessing the debate around them. Some have worried that watching will make the American public more squeamish about loss of life in the Gulf. In the end, the public itself decides to watch or turn away.

Collateral Damage 03.25.03 K. George

It is difficult to assess how many Iraq civilians have died in the war. The Pentagon won't comment on specific numbers of Iraqi civilian casualties. The Iraqi Red Crescent has reported 70 deaths in Basra, but that information hasn't been independently verified. An advocacy group called Iraqbodycount.net says at least 199 civilians have been killed (they started counting in January when U.S. bombing raids in the "no-fly" zone intensified). It arrived at that figure by tallying references to civilian deaths reported by various news agencies.

Shock and Awe Spread, Tension and Doubt Flare 03.24.03 W. Thomson

Shock and awe is spreading. Military force may be limited to Iraq, but diplomatic fallout is worldwide. According to political writer Robert Kaplan, the strategy that was predicted to cow Iraqi troops into a quick surrender was also designed to impress other adversaries. Kaplan identifies Iran is the "real hinge" of the region.

Others warn not to confuse respect and fear. Military analyst Richard Bennett says the most intractable effect of the war in Iraq will be the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea is being pushed to the edge of panic by the war in Iraq, since the country still tops the U.S. president's short list of Axis of Evil powers. Pyongyang made the link explicit when it released the following statement:

"The U.S. use of force against Iraq, as well as military preparations by the United States and its satellites on the Korean peninsula, make it clear to us what we must do to prepare fully for justified self-defense."

North Korean leaders seemed convinced they would be next to be singled out by the Americans.

Meanwhile, Iran is complaining that U.S. planes have violated its airspace and there are reports that the Iranian military may have fired on coalition planes. Iranian leaders had threatened to shoot at military planes if their airspace were violated. A government minister was quick to add, "firing does not mean going to war." Hitting might, however. All this underscores the tension in the region, and the potential for a widened conflict.

Words Part I 03.21.03 K. George

The jargon and catchphrases used by public officials and parroted in the media obscure as much as they inform, and soft-pedal the deadly business of war:

"decapitation" = "assassination"
"collateral damage" = "dead civilians"
"assets" = "soldiers"
"neutralized" = "killed"
"robust response" = "killing with particular efficacy"
"shock and awe" = "devastating bombing of Iraq"
"incursion" ="invasion"

Words Part II 03.21.03 K. George

A particularly piqued Iraqi information minister sprinkled his speech with mobster metaphors at a press conference yesterday: American was the "superpower of Al Capone," and the Bush administration the "criminal George Bush and his gang." Saddam Hussein is alleged to have a taste for gangster flicks, especially "The Godfather." Perhaps it is required viewing for his cabinet.

Peace Protests, as War Starts 03.21.03 W. Thomson

Peace protests around the world were galvanized by anger at the start of the American war with Iraq. In India, police used tear gas and clubs on protesters. In the Muslim world, confrontations between the police and protesters turned violent. Egyptian authorities held off protesters intent on marching on the American Embassy in Cairo, using attack dogs and water canons.

In the United States, the largest and most confrontational protests were in San Francisco where some 1,400 people were arrested, setting records of numbers of arrests in that city.

Protesters in Boston balanced their rage at the government with concern for their countrymen in harm's way. Many people argued that the best way to support the troops was to bring them home.

At the Government Center protest, organizers bellowed over bull horns "No Blood for Oil," and led chants of "Who's gonna stop the war? We're gonna stop the war." Despite the optimism of the slogans, few seemed to believe that George Bush was likely to heed a peace march in Boston, Massachusetts, or that they might succeed in convincing where the United Nations had failed.

Attorney Brownlow Speer said the start of war has not caused him to lose resolve. Speer says it is important to leave a record for the future and for the world that there was dissent when this war started. "I'm out today to help make a show to the rest of the world that not everyone here signs off on this illegal war, so when the world looks at America, it will see that a part of the citizenry didn't want to take a part in a war crime," said Spear.

Others, echoed that sentiment. "I think we have a lot to feel confident about," said Kay Thomas, affordable housing analyst, surveying the rally. "You can't talk about it in the past tense," she said.

The energy of the protests could gather steam as military casualties mount on both sides of the conflict. Foxboro High School student Brian Curran walked at the head of the march as the protests took over city streets. "We're not going to let business as usual continue as long as this country is at war," he said, adding that civil disobedience, the term for knowingly risking arrest in protest, was an option many would consider.

At the fringes of the Government Center protest, pro-war counter protesters formed a small circle. Russ Robins held a sign recalling September 11. He called the protesters a very vocal minority, but didn't say they shouldn't express their views. "On the whole this is not unpatriotic, free speech is what it is," he said.

According to the Washington Times, the first casualty of war with Iraq was a Jordanian. Iraqbodycount.net has the civilian death toll thus far at 16.

In Other News... 03.20.03 K. George

The Slate's Mickey Kaus reminds us war coverage has exiled otherwise important news stories to the limbo of page A-10 and beyond. Consider this nugget from page A-12 of the Washington Post, easily front-page fodder if not for Iraq:

Counterterror Team's Turnover Continues
The resignation Monday of Rand Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for combating terrorism, marked the second round of upheaval in the White House's counterterrorism team in less than 18 months.

From A-10 of USA Today:

Farmer surrenders in Washington
Traffic in the nation's capital is back to normal — for now. But the mayhem caused by a 48-hour standoff with a disgruntled North Carolina tobacco farmer made many nervous about the odds of getting out of Washington, D.C., if terrorists attack.

War is now all but certain, with U.S. and British forces arrayed some 300,000 strong at Iraq's borders. Almost equally sure is that Saddam Hussein will be deposed by those forces. Knowing he will be captured or killed, Hussein has no chance for success in this Gulf War, but he does have options open to inflict some measure of failure on the United States.

-Chaos Strategy

One option open to Hussein is to create chaos in his country. Already, Iraqi troops are reported to have opened spigots on wells, creating pools of oil that could be set ablaze. There are numerous reports that the oil wells themselves are wired with explosives. Smoke would reduce visibility, complicating attacks by land and air and the rich wealth of the country could be denied the invaders and their installed government. There is speculation that Iraq's army might even poison the water supply.

Meanwhile, there are reports that some Iraqis may slow American forces with nerve gas. An extended fight could send millions of refugees fleeing, and in the worst case scenarios, the chaos could spread throughout the Middle East.

-Maintaining Reputation

At odds with the goal of generating mayhem is Hussein's desire to cement a reputation and place in history in the eyes of his people, the Arab world, and in world opinion. Hussein could stage a final, noble stand, chosing to fight a clean war. Hussein could die a martyr, and wreak havoc on American policy from the grave. "This is not President Saddam Hussein's war. This is a Muslim war," believers were told in Baghdad's holiest Shiite Muslim site.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, withdrawn from Iraq before the American war, says that it is unlikely that Hussein would unleash any chemical weapons he may still possess. There is great skepticism of the U.S. war, says Blix, and that would evaporate if Hussein were to use weapons of mass destruction. "Some people care about their reputation even after death," said Blix.