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War & politics: Sept 11th, bin Laden, Middle East news, from my own perspective.

25 March 2003   

 

Quick post

Looks like I was wrong this morning, Al Jazeera is suffering a denial of service attack.

Good news for a change: Uprising reported in Basra and Support for war surges. Better we see the other side too: Europeans flock to al-Jazeera

Web Logs: Troops' War Stories In Real Time. Some blogs from soldiers at the front line.


858 Also posted to: Home page . At: 11:57:37 PM  . .
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Quick post

How allies are winning on ground, Iraqis on TV: Things don't seem to be going well again this morning. Over my morning coffee I watch the 24 hour news stations, read the usual pages on the net.

Right now, I'm watching a news conference from the Iraqi Information Ministry. Saddam always said that he wasn't worried about the empty areas, our pundits always feared a guerilla urban campaign, and this looks as it will happen. Tanks, bombs are all useless fighting around schools and hospitals. And the TV is talking about the red line Saddam has run around Baghdad, cross this and WMD will be used. Tommy Franks said the Iraqi high command was no longer 'robust,' well it doesn't look that way.

BBC: Arab states line up behind Iraq

A summit of Arab foreign ministers has demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US and British forces from Iraq.

The Arab League ministers meeting in Cairo passed a resolution declaring the war on Iraq a "violation of the United Nations Charter" and a "threat to world peace."

The US will probably hold out for a few weeks outside Baghdad while they await more supplies and reserves. The 4th Armoured Division passed through the Suez Canal Monday on its way to the Gulf. To shorten its journey, the divisionÕs troops will probably disembark at Saudi Red Sea ports and cut through east into Iraq. The 173th Airborne Brigade based in Italy, counterpart of the 82nd Airborne Division, has received orders to move out to northern Iraq.

The US are trying to get the journalists out of Baghdad already, they know that the West will not stomach the horrors of an urban campaign. And it looks as though that's the way Iraq is fighting in Basra and the other villages. No wonder there hasn't been the scenes from WWII liberated France that we were all hoping for. The Iraqis have not yet met the victors, they have the 30-40,000 Fedayeen who may kill their families spying on the ordinary Iraqi as well as terrorising the ordinary soldier. Just like the SS in WWII.

Away from the main arena, a small yet illuminating scene played out just across the Iraqi border Monday morning. Syria complained that a stray American missile had struck a bus killing five civilians and injuring ten. ITV report that Syria claim they were innocent workers and the US say they targeted a bridge.

According to DEBKAfileÕs military sources, the only true fact in this terse account was that the bus was Syrian. The missile was no stray. It was deliberately fired from an F-15 fighter-bomber at a bus carrying armed Palestinian volunteers to join up with Iraqi forces, in order to make sure this was the last such Palestinian group of volunteers for Iraq. That F-15 made a piece of history; it carried out the first American air attack on a combatant Palestinian group. More will certainly be heard of this episode.

Who to believe? The rest of the world or an Israeli 'counter intelligence' site.

Now, at last al Jazeera has an English version of their website. Their traffic is going to rocket and I'm getting time out errors from the server.


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