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21. mars 2003
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Losing on the home front
While Bush is waging war abroad, his political opponents back home does not lie down to die. First, his attempt to open up an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil exploration was defeated.
Now, Democrats and some Republican rebels has voted to trim $100bn from Bush' tax cut plan and put it in a fund to pay for the war in Iraq.
It is amazing that the Bush administration has decided to wage a significant war without providing any funding for it.
9:22:31 PM 
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Not very successful war so far
While the mainstream media keeps repeating propaganda, it's pretty obvious the war is not going exactly as planned (not that any war ever did).
First, the war seems to have started prematurely when a 'window of opportunity' opened to hit Saddam Hussein himself. All evidence so far suggests that this attack was a failure (no definite evidence, though, but provoking Saddam to prove himself alive may well be a ploy to pinpoint him again).
Second, we heard that Saddam's army would surrender in droves. Considering its sorry state, it speaks volumes about the sentiments within the Iraqi army that even the most ill-equipped, outgunned forces put up resistance. Sure, we have surrenders, but not on a significant scale.
Third, we are hearing a lot about how this war will be gentle on civilians. How on earth does this combine with Rumsfeld's promise of a 'shock and awe' (groan already) destructive attack on Baghdad, a city with millions of civilians?
Fourth, why doesn't mainstream media ask these questions? Journalists seem to ask no hard questions, they just propagate jaw-dropping images as pure entertainment.
[Update] Fifth, of course, special forces were supposed to hinder Iraqis from putting oil fields on fire. They seem to have failed.
The US propaganda war, on the other hand, has been immensely successful.
I don't doubt the outcome of this war, but what seems pretty obvious is that coaltion intelligence on Iraq has been very bad. That has been demonstrated with the Bush administration's countless gaffes in the attempt to provide a 'smoking gun' on Iraqi non-compliance. And it keeps being demonstrated in the early phase of this war.
9:16:44 PM
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'Shock and awe'
A massive air bombardment of Baghdad is on now.
Speaking of propaganda: "shock and awe" has 1500 occurrences now.
7:38:47 PM
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Propaganda watch
Pentogonese has taken over the media. An important part of winning the propaganda war is getting everybody to use specific loaded terms.
"surgical strikes" - means bombing, plain and simple. It has always been the intention of armed forces to hit what it aims at, and nothing else. With a home front sensitive to the unintentional killing of innocent civilians, it has been important to convey the idea that bombs can take out the bad guys and leave the innocent intact, like a surgeon can remove cancer cells and leave its host alive. They were talking about "smart bombs" already in the Viet Nam war. During Gulf War I, the terms went into mainstream use. In hindsight, we know only a small fraction of munitions were "smart" in any way, and even they went astray quite often. Even more important, sometimes intellgence was bad, leading to the surgical bombing of innocents. Google news report 95 occurrences now.
"collateral damage" - an emphemism for when "surgical strikes" miss, and kill innocents. Google news report 716 occurrences.
"friendly fire" - Orwellian as the term is, it refers to friendly forces being hit by accident. This is a good reason servicemen during WWII popularised the term "SNAFU", Situation Normal All Fucked Up. 916 occurrences.
7:11:08 PM
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'Chirac Saddam's whore'
The infamous English tabloid The Sun, Britain's largest newspaper, causes outrage with its continued attacks on the French president Jacques Chirac. Earlier the tabloid expressed its disgust with Chirac by calling him "a worm." Obviously they felt they were too nice. Now he is branded the "Paris harlot."
The tabloid also displayed a picture of Saddam Hussein and Chirac together on a special French edition frontpage, writing
One is a corrupt bully who is risking the lives of our troops. He is sneering at Britain, destroying democracy and endangering world peace. The other is Saddam Hussein.
The newspaper's commandos then drove through the French capital, leaving thousands of copies at Metro stations.
To the editors of the British tabloid, Iraq may be the enemy of the hour, but the primary enemy remains the same as it has been since the 14th century: the French.
6:35:02 PM
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The real reason for the war
You think Bush is in it for oil? To revenge Saddam's attempt on daddy's life? To fulfill Biblical apocalyptics? To secure Israel's interests? A modern-day imperialist adventure?
No, no, no.
A site imaginatively called "stuff" has the full scoop:
President Bush decided to attack Iraq because he was scared Saddam Hussein would use technology from a crashed alien spaceship, UFO watchers claim.
So now you know!
4:54:07 PM
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Iraqi forces put up unexpected resistance
Most commentators expected the badly equipped regular Iraqi army to surrender in droves, but it has put up unepexted hard resistance in the south. If these reports are correct, it may indicate a long and hard road to Baghdad. The elite republican forces are placed in the cities, hoping to engage the coaltion forces in costly and dangerous urban warfare.
4:24:31 PM
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Turkey wants its own invasion
Turkey has postponed opening its airspace to coalition air forces because the US opposes Turkey invading Northen Iraq.
Some press reports say Turkish forces have already crossed the border, contrary to US wishes.
Turkey wants to invade northern Iraq for two reasons. One is to prevent Kurdish refugees from entering Turkey. The second is to prevent an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq.
Turkey refused US forces from going into Iraq through its northern territory. I don't see how the US should take their wishes very much into account.
4:14:12 PM
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Tomahawk power
An article in the Guardian about how the cruise missile, tested to little fanfare first in 1977, has changed the way America thinks about warfare. Originally a cold-war weapon, it has become a stand-off weapon of choice for a US military afraid of its own casualties, but still eager to show muscle.
4:19:05 AM
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"Frosty"
That was the word used on BBC radio right now to describe the relationship between French president Jacques Chirac and British prime minister Tony Blair.
No kidding.
2:49:19 AM
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Ricin found in Paris
Ricin, the very powerful poison found by anti-terror police in London in January, has recently been discovered at a railway station in Paris.
The fondness of ricin with some terrorist cells indicates they may be changing tactic from large-scale bomb attacks to targeted assassinations.
1:33:49 AM
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Blair commits to Iraqi democracy and peace in the Middle East
 Some cynics have noted that George Bush did not mention the word "democracy" in his statement about the future of Iraq.
However, Tony Blair (picture), in a recent address to the nation, was very clear in addressing these concerns, and also said that Iraq's oil reserves would not be taken by any foreign power:
I hope the Iraqi people hear this message. We are with you. Our enemy is not you, but your barbarous rulers. Our commitment to the post-Saddam humanitarian effort will be total. We shall help Iraq move towards democracy. And put the money from Iraqi oil in a UN trust fund so that it benefits Iraq and no one else.
Perhaps even more important, Tony Blair pledged both for himself and for President Bush that they were committed to peace in the Middle East:
"President Bush and I have committed ourselves to peace in the Middle East based on a secure state of Israel and a viable Palestinian state.
We will strive to see it done."
The Muslim world in particular will no doubt pay careful attention to this pledge.
12:41:25 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:33:19.
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