War

Melted Bodies

/ Iraq, War

"Battles Rage in Iraqi Cities, Bodies Litter Desert" (Luke Baker and Rosalind Russell for Reuters, 3/23/03):

Charred Iraqi corpses smolder in burned-out trucks. Black smoke hangs over bombed cities where U.S. troops battle Iraqi soldiers. Youths greet British tanks with smiles, then sneer when they have passed.

Reuters correspondents in southern Iraq -- some with U.S.-led forces, some operating independently -- watched the war to topple Saddam Hussein unfold on Sunday as U.S. convoys advanced on Baghdad and battles raged for control of key cities. In the desert near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, just 100 miles south of Baghdad, correspondent Luke Baker traveled through a plain littered with Iraqi bodies and gutted vehicles after U.S. forces fought a seven-hour battle against militiamen desperately trying to halt their advance.

Some vehicles were still smoldering, and charred ribs were the only recognizable part of three melted bodies in a destroyed car lying in the roadside dust.

"It wasn't even a fair fight. I don't know why they don't just surrender," said Colonel Mark Hildenbrand, commander of the 937th Engineer Group. "When you're playing soccer at home, 3-2 is a fair score, but here it's more like 119-0."

Melted Bodies Read More »

Fallout for Tony Blair

/ Great Britain, GW Bush Admin, Iraq, Tony Blair, War

William Hoge, "Blair Is So Down He's Up" (New York Times, 3/23/03):

Mr. Blair himself has remained steadfastly loyal to Mr. Bush in private as well as in public, but high-ranking members of his government say that the blunt comments that have come out of Washington have repeatedly undermined their efforts to reason with critics of America here.

In contrast to the custom in Washington of keeping presidents at a distance from forums and audiences that might embarrass them, Mr. Blair has actively sought out opponents to try to press home the unpopular American position. He has withstood heckling and a peculiar British form of speaker abuse known as slow hand-clapping. . . .

Britain, a country of 60 million people who buy 14 million newspapers a day, has one of the world's most aggressively competitive presses, and British newspapers are hard on prime ministers in normal times. In the current political atmosphere of Labor domination, they have taken on an added edge, assigning themselves the role of the opposition in British political life that the weakened Conservative Party is unable to fulfill.

But last week there was a notable break in the harsh treatment. The day after Mr. Blair gave the speech of his life in the House of Commons and managed to contain the Labor rebellion, The Independent, a relentless enemy of his war stance, published an editorial with unblushing language suggesting that Mr. Blair's lonely struggle, which seemed to be leaving him isolated and adrift, may have instead worn down his detractors and earned him begrudging respect.

Fallout for Tony Blair Read More »

War Budget: $80 Billion

/ GW Bush Admin, Iraq, War

Bush administration projects the cost of the war at $80 billion (after witholding a projection during key congressional budget debates) (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/23/03):

President Bush plans to tell congressional leaders on Monday that the war in Iraq will cost about $80 billion, administration officials said, three days after both chambers of Congress passed budget plans and authorized tax cuts without a war-cost estimate from the administration.

For weeks, White House officials refused to provide a cost estimate, saying they could not account for the various war scenarios. But officials said Saturday that on Monday, Bush plans to tell congressional leaders he will ask for additional funding of about $80 billion.

War Budget: $80 Billion Read More »

Don’t Blame Ralph

/ GW Bush Admin, Iraq, Ralph Nader, War

Ralph Nader: Bush is a dictator, but it's not my fault (Kaye Ross, San Jose Mercury News, 3/23/03):

Bush is acting "in effect as a selected dictator," Nader told the Mercury News in an interview Friday. The president has not listened to any of the many retired admirals, generals and foreign-policy experts who have warned against the war, Nader said. And the stated reasons for going to war "have either been disproved or greatly distorted," he said.

The greatest danger will come, Nader said, after the war has been won. Bush, whom he called "a hit-and-run president," will not stick with the difficult, protracted process of rebuilding Iraq and making it democratic, he said. . . .

But it's not his fault, he said. In fact, people could just as easily blame David McReynolds, the Socialist Party candidate in 2000, for giving the key state of Florida to Bush, he noted. McReynolds polled 622 votes in the state, and Democratic Vice President Al Gore lost by 537 votes. Nader, who ran as the Green Party candidate, got 97,488 votes.

"When people ask me this, I say, 'What would you have me do?'" Nader said. "Everybody has a right to run for office."

Don’t Blame Ralph Read More »

What We Know about Iraq

/ GW Bush Admin, Iraq, Media, War

New York Times editorial: "Watching Iraq" (3/23/03):

What most of us know of Iraq we know from just the kind of television we are watching now. It's a nation seen over the correspondent's shoulder, or through the windshield of a fighting vehicle moving into a beige void. But in a way, America knows a great deal about Iraq. We actually know every inch of the country. United Nations inspectors have explored it in the ways that interest us most. Surveillance satellites are constantly watching overhead. We've been making fixed-wing surveillance flights since before the first gulf war. Perhaps in some declassified future, those photographs will serve the same purpose as the aerial photos the Luftwaffe took of England in the late summer of 1940. Now, they provide a clear snapshot of the country as it was, an archeological benchmark against which to measure all future change.

What We Know about Iraq Read More »

Protests: Africa

/ Africa, Iraq, War

"Anti-War Protests Sweep Africa" (BBC, 3/23/03):

Other developments across Africa:

  • South African President Thabo Mbeki, whose country has been a prominent opponent of attacks on Iraq, expressed regret, saying the war "is a blow to multilateralism".
  • The United States has shut its embassies in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
  • Nigeria says some of its citizens have been recruited to fight for Iraq against US-led forces and are preparing to leave.
  • Eritrea, one of two African countries to join Mr Bush's "coalition of the willing", said it did support the war but added that it was not directly involved in the actual conflict.
  • Ethiopia said it had offered the United States the use of its airspace and also landing rights, as requested by the US in relation to the Iraq war.
  • Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the attack on Iraq was an "immoral" war in which America was abusing its power.

Protests: Africa Read More »

March 22 Protests in Britain

/ Great Britain, Iraq, War

Marcus Tanner on the 3/22 protests in Britain (The Independent, 3/23/03)

Among the veterans of these affairs, the lean, ferrety-faced men with their megaphone voices and mass- produced slogans about socialism and Palestine, there were droves of representatives from that famous if elusive constituency known as Middle England -- worried-looking families wrestling with the business of carrying a placard in one hand and a rolled-up "quality" newspaper under one arm, while keeping pushchairs and toddlers in order.

March 22 Protests in Britain Read More »

Protests

/ Iraq, War

Early demonstrations, 3/22/03: Japan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Korea, India, New Zealand, Pakistan (New York Times, 3/22/03)

Elsewhere: Germany, Britain, Spain, Ireland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, New Zealand, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, Japan, and the United States, (New York Times, 3/23/03)

More: Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, the Sudan, Indonesia, Bahrain, and Egypt (Guardian, 3/22/03)

Protests Read More »

War Support Much Lower This Time

/ GW Bush Admin, Iraq, War

Poll: War boost for Bush smaller than for his father in 1991, and unlike then, Democrats and Republicans diverge sharply. Overall, 70 percent of Americans approve of the war and 27 percent disapprove (does that mean that three percent are undecided?); 93 percent of Republicans approve, but only 50 percent of Democrats (in 1991, these numbers were 94 percent and 81 percent, respectively). (New York Times, 3/22/03.)

War Support Much Lower This Time Read More »

Arab League Head Condemns Invasion

/ Iraq, War

"Arabs Seethe as TV Brings Iraq Destruction Home" (Caroline Drees for Reuters, 3/22/03)

Amr Moussa, the head of the 22-member Arab League, said "no Arab with any remnant of conscience can tolerate" the bombing of Baghdad, once the proud capital of the Islamic world.

George W. Bush, 3/19/03

"The bombing and violence we're seeing on satellite TV should stir the ire of every Arab who sees it," said the secretary-general, who has warned a war against Iraq could "open the gates of hell" in the Middle East.

While many Arabs have little sympathy for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, they say they are furious about the suffering the war is causing innocent Iraqis.

"I feel sad and hurt because there's nothing we can do. The Arabs are weak and America controls the situation," said Saudi Walid Musharraf, a 29-year-old accountant.

"Now everyone here hates America, and even some Americans hate the American government," he said.

Arab League Head Condemns Invasion Read More »