Month: March 2003

Just a little wartime cheer: Civilians flee Basra as paramilitaries brace for last stand

Civilians fleeing Iraq’s main southern city of Basra said increasingly desperate Iraqi fighters were preparing for a last stand against a swelling force of British troops and tanks being readied to fight their way in.

Many of the hundreds streaming out of the city over a bridge leading south said the Iraqi soldiers, paramilitaries and Baath party members loyal to President Saddam Hussein who have held off the coalition forces since the start of the war nearly two weeks ago were trying to stop the exodus.

“They believe that if Basra empties of civilians it will be easy for the foreign troops to take the city,” one man said, echoing the comments of many.

and:

Iraqis Welcome U.S. Marines in Shatra
Monday, March 31, 2003 11:43 a.m. ET
By Sean Maguire

SHATRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Hundreds of Iraqis shouting “Welcome to Iraq” greeted Marines who entered the town of Shatra Monday after
storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships.

A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 20 miles north of the city of Nassiriya, after being beckoned in by a
crowd of people.

“There’s no problem here. We are happy to see Americans,” one young man shouted.

and on our friends the peaceniks, Julie Burchill writes in The Guardian:

What these supreme egotists achieve by putting themselves at the centre of every crisis is to make the Iraqi people effectively disappear. NOT IN MY NAME! is western imperialism of the sneakiest sort, putting our clean hands before the freedom of an enslaved people. But even those whose anti-war protests started in good faith now know that when Saddam’s regime comes tumbling down, thousands of Iraqis will dance and sing with joy before the TV cameras, and thank our armed forces for giving them back their lives.

Links via Command Post, I think.

From Dean Esmay, Ken Joseph tells what he learned from asking actual Iraqis about the war:

“We are not afraid of the American bombing. They will bomb carefully and not purposely target the people. What we are afraid of is Saddam Hussein and what he and the Baath Party will do when the war begins. But even then we want the war. It is the only way to escape our hell. Please tell them to hurry. We have been through war so many times, but this time it will give us hope”.

He’s gonna be on Baba Wawa this week, apparently.

Command Post notes:

U.S. Controls Terror Camp in Iraq

WASHINGTON – American forces are searching a terrorist compound in northeastern Iraq (news – web sites) that was probably the site where militants made a biological toxin, traces of which were later found by police in London, the Pentagon (news – web sites)’s top general said Sunday.

U.S. and British forces now control the compound, which belongs to the group Ansar al-Islam, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, describing it as a site “where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaida had been working on poisons.”

“We think that’s probably (from) where the ricin that was found in London came,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition.” “At least the operatives and maybe some of the formulas came from this site.”

Nope, there’s no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda at all, folks, none whatsoever, and Iraq has no WMDs. It’s all a big snow job. Saddam is a good man, and he likes puppies, kittens, and little old ladies (for testing Ricin).

Here is a good example of the fierce resistance encountered by the imperialist American war machine on its way to Baghdad:

CENTRAL IRAQ (AFP) – Iraqi civilians fleeing heavy fighting have stunned and delighted hungry US marines in central Iraq (news – web sites) by giving them food, as guerrilla attacks continue to disrupt coalition supply lines to the rear.

Sergeant Kenneth Wilson said Arabic-speaking US troops made contact with two busloads of Iraqis fleeing south along Route Seven towards Rafit, one of the first friendly meetings with local people for the marines around here.

“They had slaughtered lambs and chickens and boiled eggs and potatoes for their journey out of the frontlines,” Wilson said

At one camp, the buses stopped and women passed out food to the troops, who have had to ration their army-issue packets of ready-to-eat meals due to disruptions to supply lines by fierce fighting further south.

If they really wanted to be liberated, of course, they would give the soldiers cheeseburgers and beer rather than lamb.

Meanwhile, back in the USSR, Columbia professor of anthropology hopes for “a million Mogadishus”, but even the kids aren’t buying it:

Too many students left the teach-in feeling intimidated not by the overwhelming opposition to the war, but to the way an academic forum became a fervid presentation of an exclusive viewpoint. In the future, the University should be wary of advertising a “critical” forum that is so uncritical of its own perspective.

What a zoo.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, we read:

Al-Qaeda fighting with Iraqis, British claim

March 28 2003, 9:41 AM

Near Basra, Iraq: British military interrogators claim captured Iraqi soldiers have told them that al-Qaeda terrorists are fighting on the side of Saddam Hussein’s forces against allied troops near Basra.
At least a dozen members of Osama bin Laden’s network are in the town of Az Zubayr where they are coordinating grenade and gun attacks on coalition positions, according to the Iraqi prisoners of war.

Yes, it’s an unconfirmed report, but how much do you want to bet that Iraq is right now a magnet attracting every anti-American fanatic in the Middle East? Their deaths will be another benefit of this war.

In the comments of Ibidem, a crisp summary of Liberation Theology and the oppressed people of Iraq:

While liberation theology does not encourage violence, it acknowledges the right of people to defend themselves against murderous repression. Uprisings by Kurds and Shi’ites in 1987-89 and in 1991 were put down in large-scale massacres, sometimes with chemical weapons. If they were to rise again, they would have the world’s sympathy. Liberation theology would say that the Lord, who breaks the rod of the oppressor, was with them. But unaided rebellion would have no prospect of success, and our bystander sympathy, our distant indignation (if we even noticed) would not prevent it being crushed with great slaughter.

Yet amazingly, when their liberation rides on the probable success of US arms, much of the world is totally opposed. As the prophet Isaiah recognized in Cyrus the Persian — Israel’s hope of liberation from Babylon — so today Iraqi exiles cannot wait for the US to overthrow Saddam’s regime. But, sadly, Christian solidarity with them is overwhelmed by pacifism, neutralism, and anti-Americanism.

Pacifism absolutises peace at the expense of justice, and neutralism turns fence-sitting into moral superiority. Anti-Americanism, like Saddam’s torturers, drowns the cries of the victims and silences the tongues of the exiles. To wonder whether there is sufficient justification for war is not unreasonable. But to claim, as have some senior clerics, that there is no justification at all is to close one’s eyes to the historical record and one’s ears to the victims. Liberation theology would say: God is with the victims, and failure to stand in solidarity with them is a betrayal of the Gospel.

Bottom line: the Pope is wrong.

Link Jeff Jarvis.

London’s Daily Mirror is staunchly pro-Saddam, but they do publish Christopher Hitchens’ attempts to shock their readers back to their senses. The latest:

I feel disgust for those who blame this week’s deaths on the intervention and not on its sole target: Saddam Hussein.

A few days ago, a US Navy SEAL team allowed its whole attack to be watched live, as it went ashore and painlessly disarmed an Iraqi garrison with orders to blow up oil terminals.

Who would not approve the careful and humane pre-emptive strike that prevented such an atrocity with no loss of life? Who is going to report the numerous other unsung victories in a carefully calibrated conflict?

Is it too obvious to mention that Saddam’s side in this war threatens the use of indiscriminate tactics, puts civilians in harm’s way, and trashes the Geneva Convention the first chance it gets?

Link via Tim Blair.

Now the Iraqi government’s official website, http://www.uruklink.net is off the air, too. It was redirected to http://www.itshappening.com/index_three.html for a while, and now it’s just plain dead.

Hackers have found a good way to use their time, and my theory that engineers support the liberation of Iraq is further supported.

Meanwhile, scripter Mark Pilgrim publishes a Doonesbury cartoon sneering at the commander in chief, and then cuts off comments when they get too hot for his pacifist philosophy to handle:

This discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.

It seems to me that the theory that you can resolve all conflicts by non-violent means implies a certain openness to dialog, something lacking in Mr. Pilgrim. There’s nothing like the arrogance of the morally superior.

I hadn’t read any Doonesbury for a while, and it’s pretty sad to see how far that once-funny and occasionally insightful strip has fallen; he’s still rehashing 60s themes, although the world has actually changed since the heyday of boomer adolescence.

Al-Jazeera Web Site Knocked Off-Line

The new English-language Web site of controversial Qatar-based satellite news channel Al-Jazeera was knocked off-line Tuesday by what may have been a denial-of-service attack.

Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?

Republicans in Sacramento want to pass a resolution supporting the troops and the commander in chief, but recalcitrant Democrats would rather score points:

The initial Democratic response to Plescia’s call for a resolution came from Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, and Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, whose alternative made no mention at all of the president, instead honoring the efforts of U.S. forces and calling for a swift return to peace.

Perhaps California democrats have a little bit of a death wish.