The Iraqi gunners fired first, soon after United States President George Bush announced the attack on Saddam Hussein was under way.    It was a fatal mistake.

The Iraqi artillery unit, preparing for the American invasion, had tested the range by firing registering shots at a likely spot where the American tanks would cross from Kuwait.    US radar picked up the incoming shells and pinpointed their source.

Within hours, the Iraqi gunners and their Russian-made 122mm howitzers were destroyed as the Americans unleashed an artillery barrage that shook the ground and lit up the night sky with orange flashes.

“Dead bodies are everywhere,” a US officer reported by radio.

“I pity anybody who’s in there,” a marine sergeant said.    “We told them to surrender.”



When is it going to stop?    Please, please, please let it stop.


Sydney Morning Herald

They that speak in our name

I sit and wait in this night of death

wondering what to do.

Can I hear the screams?

we talk of the bombs that came over London

and we were so proud then of ourselves, of our behaviour, of how we held upright.

how sad now.

defiled our leaders have made us,

they that speak in our name

defiled we are, to do this to another people.

Not in my name George Bush!




Not in my name Tony Blair!




Why not invade?        Because you do not have the RIGHT!

kewe note:  These are our brothers (sisters) torn apart, dead.

Is it not time to stop following the will of the father — this parent control we have inside.



Walking around London

Today I walked around Hyde Park in London while the UK Parliament were discussing the impending war.

It was a sunny afternoon and with my small walkman radio tuned to the BBC Longwave service (on medium wave) I strolled around the large lake, then had coffee in the pleasant coffee house at the end of the lake, then strolled around the green areas of the park, listening to the eight minute speeches.    It was voting day for the United Kingdom's Members of Parliament.    The day when they had to decide if they would vote for war, or for peace.

Shoddy of me to phrase it that way.    After all those who would vote for war, would be voting for peace...
The peace that comes, once you have rid yourself of a dictator.

The speeches were magnificient.    Nothing was not said, that I have not thought about or written about.    Much was said that made me realize how I have, and am, trying to stop the overthrow of a person who likely has become one of the antichrists.

An enigma of conscience, for those working class Labour party people who now vote for war, and for me.

The vote of course was never in doubt.    There was an opposing motion, put forth from a 'rebel' faction, those who opposed going to war.    The vote, after 10 continuous hours of debating, was 396 for war, 217 for peace, (for not going to war, my wording).

All but 15 of the opposition Conservative party voted for war.    All of the opposition Liberal Democrat party (53) voted against going to war.    It was interesting how, in the debates, the Liberal Democrat party members were most vilified, by both the 'front bench' (important) members of the worker Labour Party, and those leaders of the Conservative Party.    I suppose it is this party and its people that they fear most, if this war is not settled quickly, and harmlessly, for the people of the United Kingdom.

Much was made of the evil that has been done by Iraq's leader.    Much was said of the liberation that will be brought to Iraq's people.    A people that has lived under a tyranny for far too long.    Even a day is too long, and they have been subjected to this evil for far too long.

So we are all here now.    The bombs will start falling.

I have to ask.    If we did not have the bombs....

Would we have tried some other way?

No.    Then we would have left Iraq to its misery.

But...

But the words are all gone now.

Young Marines getting jittery as desert countdown drags on

By Lindsay Murdoch, Herald Correspondent at Camp Matilda, Kuwait
March 17 2003

The young American Marine sits on an ammunition box in a tent, nestling his automatic rifle.    “I’m scared to death ... I don’t mind telling you,” he says.

The longer world leaders squabble over Iraq, delaying a US-led invasion of the country, the tougher it gets for tens of thousands of US and British troops living in Kuwaiti desert camps near the border with Iraq.

“I have doubts about all this ... real doubts,” says the soldier, who comes from Alabama.

“The other night I read a passage in the Bible and I know that I have been trained to do a job and I must do it, but I want to be home with my fiancée real bad.”

Desert winds up to 100kmh often whip up the sand, blinding the soldiers, blowing down tents and damaging sensitive equipment like computers.    The air is so heavy with sand that it killed chickens the military brought to alert soldiers to a chemical or biological attack.

Marines in some of the camps, who have already been here four months, queue for up to 40 minutes to get one hot meal a day.    The mail is usually late arriving.    There are long queues to make telephone calls.    And the daytime temperature is quickly rising as summer approaches: this will soon be one of the world’s hottest places.

But most of all, the soldiers just want the war to start or to go home.

Another soldier, about 20, told his sergeant he was upset because he had heard a rumour that a decision on the war had been delayed 45 days.    The sergeant stiffened and snapped back: “I’ve heard a rumour that your wife is having an affair with the mailman ... That’s why your mail is late.    Do you believe that?”     When the soldier said he didn’t, the sergeant said: “Well don’t believe rumours; you got that son?”

The road to war is a six-lane highway that is packed day and night with convoys of trucks transporting weapons, tanks, ammunition, food and other supplies to the camps from ports near Kuwait City.    More camps are still being put up.

But soldiers in combat units massed near the border are mostly taking it easy, tinkering with their weapons and machinery, making sure everything is working.

The frequent exercises they had been conducting for months have largely stopped, replaced by briefings on how the soldiers are to conduct themselves in any war with Iraq, including the rules of engagement.

A top US Marine commander, Major General Jim Mattis, has told journalists who are living in the camps that war this time with Iraq would be a “different ballgame” from the one in 1991 because the lives of many civilian Iraqis would be at risk.    He said soldiers had been briefed to spare civilians and civilian property and to “use your brain before you use your weapon”.

US commanders are worried that the Iraqi military intends to deploy forces near mosques, schools and others areas where civilians congregate.

Extensive briefings have also been held on how the soldiers are to handle prisoners of war.    They have been told to expect large numbers of them.

A few days ago, according to unconfirmed reports, a group of Iraqi soldiers turned up at the border with Kuwait wanting to surrender.    They were told to go away because the war had not started.

The Herald has been assigned to cover any war with Iraq with the Ist Division’s 5th Battalion, 11th Regiment, an artillery unit.




The Sydney Morning Herald.

(Translation by computer) Saturday March 15, 2003

Being silent protest against war.

In Switzerland numerous actions took place yesterday against a war in the Iraq.

sda. - Thousands work-taking followed the call of the European trade union federation and laid down at 11.55 o'clock for five being silent minutes their work.    The war against Iraq will release a humanitarian disaster and will to unemployment and social uncertainty strengthen, the trade union building and industry (GBI) states in a report.

In the canton employees, and employees on building sites, industrial companies and in the administration of city and canton, their work laid down in Berne.

Peace flag at Galler cathedral.    In the city Gallen demonstrated approximately 100 young people with the cathedral against the war.    Peace characters at the scaffolded towers of the church rainbow-colored 'Peace' flags were hung.

In Zurich yesterday evening a demonstration took place, which was supported by more than 20 organizations, parties and trade unions.    Already afternoon actions had been accomplished in schools and other educational facilities of the city.   

Also in Germany, Spain and Bulgaria persons employed demonstrated with reminding minutes against the feared Iraq war.    With Daimler Chrysler, AUDI and Volkswagen in Germany the volumes stood still.   

In rested for five minutes the traffic resounds.



Liechtenstein Varterland Newspaper