Free Republic

THE US opened its war on Iraq with a pre-dawn missile barrage at the Iraqi leadership yesterday but apparently failed to kill Saddam Hussein, whose image later appeared on television to accuse President George W. Bush of a "shameful crime". It was not clear if the less-than-10-minute address broadcast by his son Uday's Youth television was live or pre-recorded. The assassination attacks in Baghdad, targeting Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, signalled the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, described by Mr Bush in a televised address from the Oval Office as a "broad and concerted campaign". As Iraq claimed...

The U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets using a new 30,000 pound-class penetrator weapon that Northrop Grumman has begun integrating on the aircraft. The company is doing the work under a seven-month, $2.5 million contract awarded June 1 by the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal. The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by The Boeing Company, is a...

In the wake of an Iraqi official last month blaming America's use of depleted uranium munitions in its 2003 "Shock and Awe" campaign for a surge in cancer there, the Defense Department is facing an October deadline for providing a comprehensive report to Congress on the health effects of such weapons. The report is required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which President Bush signed into law last year. The request for the study is an outgrowth of claims by Iraq war veterans that exposure to depleted uranium and other toxic substances there has negatively affected...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named bristled at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jean Palfrey. Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers. In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business. Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and...

The Raptor in the Real World By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor In little more than a year, the Air Force has transformed its newly operational F-22 into something remarkable—a weapon of true intimidation. The Raptor has proved itself time and time again in USAF’s toughest wargames. In live exercises, it has trounced the best “opponents” USAF can muster. It hits them at unprecedented speeds and altitudes—and with impunity. The F-22 does this while in the hands of operators—not test pilots, but rank and file fighter pilots. They consider it to be nearly as reliable as mature F-15 and F-16...

   You Call This A War? June 29, 2006 Maybe those in command of the War On Terror should take a break and watch a movie.  They might get a clue about what to do when you ask brave Americans to go in harm’s way, and fight a WAR.  Ask Sean Connery...You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send on of his to the morgue!...Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? Perhaps W and Rummy have...

--snip--    Budgets reflected this love affair with aerial killing. Since Gen. Huba's first exposition in the early 1990s, 70 percent of defense investments, more than $1.3 trillion, have gone into shock and awe, delivered by Air Force and Navy aircraft and missiles.     The Army got 16 percent. Thus, we come today to an amazingly perverse strategic circumstance. We have more first-line fighter aircraft costing $50 million to $400 million per copy than we have Army and Marine infantry squads, costing less than $100,000 each.     Since Gen. Huba's experiments began, we have achieved a "kill ratio" in aerial combat of 257 to...

Another voice has been added to those who believe that air strikes should halt Iran's quest to develop nuclear weapons. Gary Berntsen, the former senior CIA operative who led the search for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in late 2001, believes the United States has the ability to easily destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. He said the US could use bunker-buster bombs and other weapons to carry out the operation. "We can dig those things out. We can destroy them," he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. "We can take care of it in a couple of days with air...

#1: America Takes Off Gloves, Puts on Brass Knuckles Author: Propaganda Department, The United States has often been called, directly or indirectly, the most brutal, repressive, and rapacious empire ever to place its yoke on the shoulders of humanity. But today, in an alarming policy shift that has the world recoiling in horror, the Bush administration, fed up with its critics, announced that the United States will immediately begin to live up to its unflattering, media-driven image. "We're damned if we do and damned if we don't," a stone-faced Vice President Dick Cheney snarled at a morning press conference. "For...

UH-60 in Mosul, Iraq Night video. In this video, a helo fires at an insurgent position with its minigun, 20mm cannon and rockets. Unfortunately, the location is unknown. Also see a video reportedly of an UH-60 Blackhawk attacking an insurgent position in Mosul. Visit the video archives

When 'Shock and Awe' launched the first stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom the phrase became synonymous with a massive military strike—terrifying and overwhelming. It was a strategy designed to end the war in hours or days. That was the theory.

KITAMI, Hokkaido -- Police officers preparing to perform a post-mortem examination on a woman whose lifeless body was found near a river in Hokkaido were forced to halt the process after her heart began beating in the mortuary. The 27-year-old woman, whose name has been withheld, was whisked to a hospital after it was confirmed that she was alive, and she later regained consciousness. She is reportedly making a recovery. Police said the woman's body was found near an embankment of the Muka River in the Hokkaido city of Kitami shortly after 10 a.m. on Sunday. Officers were called to...

Yipes! Looks like this whole America-healing thing has been a bit slower than earlier anticipated. We here at Iowahawk are all about keeping hope alive, so here's fresh batch of positives to keep our progressive friends warm during the upcoming Rovian ice age: On an up note, Democratic efforts to increase voter turnout was a major success story in 2004. Progressives have shown that they know how to get first-timers and young people to the polling booth. Next time, you can work on the problem of making them vote for you. Kerry's lack of success in the South was largely...

THE "FLIP-FLOP" CHARGE WAS A DIVERSION? The guys at CrushKerry.com interview a GOP campaign operative - I think I know who they're talking to, and if I'm right, their description of his title and duties is accurate - and get a sense of an emerging strategy shift on the Bush campaign:~~~~~~~~~~~ We recently expressed our frustration over the “flip-flop” narrative with a veteran GOP campaign operative in daily contact with, and in some cases working side by side with, high-level "Bush/Cheney 04" campaign officials, and asked them why, given all the evidence that this message had long since played itself...

After-debate discussion here!

I just finished "American Soldier" by Gen. Tommy Franks, and thought I'd share what I noticed. Overall, this is one of the better memoirs I've read. His ghostwriter, Malcolm McConnell, did an excellent job of letting Franks "talk" through the narrative. I forgot I wasn't reading Franks' own writing, which is the greatest compliment you can pay a ghostwriter. The book is well balanced, with about 1/3 going to the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Even so, you don't hurry through his boot camp or Vietnam experiences. Although Franks doesn't toot his own horn too loudly, he makes it clear...

Yes, I believe itTONIGHT, exactly a year ago, was the night that people all over the world went to bed, but couldn't get to sleep. The politicians had voted. The UN inspectors had left. The invasion force, or at least the American part of it, was ready. As the sands ran out on the final deadline of the final US ultimatum, I was lying on my "executive mattress" at the Palestine Hotel, Baghdad, biting my nails and wondering if I was going to die. I wasn't the only one. Even at 3am, the lights in the flats opposite were on,...

Stealth weapons vs. donkey carts Posted: November 25, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 David H. Hackworth Once again, "shock and awe" thundered across Iraq for two explosive weeks. Then the insurgents responded to our high-tech air and ground hammer with return fire from four donkey-drawn carts toting homemade rocket launchers that hit one of the most heavily defended zones in Baghdad. Which says it all about the nature of modern guerrilla warfare. The Have-Nots – the guerrillas – use whatever they have at hand, the simplest weapons and tactics, to go up against the Have-It-Alls. In Iraq, it has...

"SHOCK AND AWE" Barrage Hits US Patent Office WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - From condoms to coffees, a wave of trademark applications using "Shock and Awe" in their names is hitting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Seven months after the most overused cliche of the Iraq War entered American jargon, a Patent Office official said on Thursday it had received 29 "Shock and Awe" applications. There are filings to trademark golf clubs, pesticides, dietary supplements, video games, salsa, energy drinks, yo-yos, lingerie, Bloody Mary mix and "infant action crib toys." "The last thing I can remember like this was...

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) --Saddam Hussein and his sons were shocked at their defeat by U.S.-led forces and met secretly after the fall of Baghdad to plan a guerrilla resistance, according to a former bodyguard for Uday Hussein.</p> <p>The bodyguard, who called himself Abu Tiba, was interviewed by Newsday reporter Matthew McAllester in Iraq shortly after his boss was killed Tuesday, according to the U.S. military, along with his brother, Qusay Hussein, by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.</p>

Hmmm....

A DAUGHTER of Saddam Hussein said last night that she is convinced her father is still alive. In her first interview, Raghad, 36, said: "I know he survived the war." Raghad described how she, one of her sisters and their children escaped being killed by American missiles at a family farm on the first night of the war. The former Iraqi dictator's eldest daughter said she was no longer in touch with her father or brothers Uday and Qusay but believed they had all survived. "The last time I spoke to my father was five days before the war," she...

THE daughters and grandchildren of Saddam Hussein narrowly escaped being killed by American missiles at a family farm on the first nightof the war, according to his eldest daughter. In her first interview Raghad, 36, said last night that she was no longer in touch with her father or brothers, Uday and Qusay, but believed they had all survived. "The last time I spoke to my father was five days before the war," she said. "He was in good spirits. I know he survived the war. "But once Baghdad fell it was all so quick, all the family went our...

WASHINGTON, DC—Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of American forces in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, announced plans Monday to step down as U.S. Central Command chief to focus on solo bombing projects. Above: Gen. Franks tells reporters, "It's time for me to see what I can destroy on my own." "The years I've spent with the Army have been amazing, and we did some fantastic bombing," said Franks at a Pentagon press conference. "But at this point, I feel like I've taken it as far as I can. It's time for me to move on and see what I can...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Baghdad bunker which the United States said it bombed on the opening night of the Iraq (news - web sites) war in a bid to kill Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) never existed, CBS Evening News reported Wednesday. The network quoted a U.S. Army colonel in charge of inspecting key sites in Baghdad as saying no trace of a bunker or of bodies had been found at the site on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, known as Dora Farms. "When we came out here, the primary thing they were looking for was an...

We don't think this is what the Pentagon had in mind when it crafted the phrase "shock and awe" to describe the opening of the Iraq war campaign. At the U.S. Patent Office are applications to market "Shock and Awe Bar-B-Que Sauce," "Shock and Awe weedkiller," and an energy drink. Even, we're told, a "Shock and Awe Condom." Says the insider who provided this info: "Yikes!"

First photo: The restaurant where Saddam was to meet his aides on 9 Apr 03. Remember: This photo was taken from SPACE. Big hole.Next photo is of the square containing Saddam's statue taken several hours before it was toppled. Note the surrounding area and the lack of damage. Then find some photos of Grozny and compare. This is a perfect example of surgical warfare. Collateral damage? Where?The next image is of the Presidential Palace, taken on 1 Apr 03. This is the place where the 'Shock and Awe' photos came from. Note the girders inside the building, as well as...

THE commanding officer of the RAF’s Dambusters spoke yesterday of his pride when his pilots were given the honour of leading the aerial bombardment against Saddam Hussein - on the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Second World War bomber squadron. Wing Commander Dave Robertson and the crews of 617 Squadron fired Britain’s new super bomb, "Storm Shadow", in precision attacks on Iraqi command and control bunkers in and around Baghdad, marking the start of the "shock and awe" phase of the war. "It was absolutely incredible," he recalled yesterday after the first of the air crews from the...

The widespread shock and horror at the US-British attack on Iraq derive above all from a stunning and almost universal lack of historical perspective. So do the hopes and expectations of many that the US ultimately will quail at the price in blood, treasure, and reputation of a series of pre-emptive wars against the world's rogue states. The record suggests otherwise. The US secured its continental position in wars against the British Empire and Mexico. But the country's formative conflict was the "second American revolution" of 1861-65, which destroyed slavery. The civil war cost 600,000 dead - the largest and...

Apr. 11, 2003 Report: Sony patents 'Shock and Awe' phrase for computer game Just one day after the war on Iraq started, Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, registered the term "Shock and Awe" as a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, The Guardian reported Thursday. A spokesman for Sony PlayStation in the UK stated that the company might not stock the game in Britain and Europe owing to political sensitivities, The Guardian reported.

Urgent! Arab and Muslim newspapers have reacted in a number of ways (9/10/11 April 2003) to the Fall of Baghdad. The following is a review of articles published in various Arabic and Farsi newspapers (translated into English):I. The Palestinian PressThe reactions of Palestinian newspapers to the fall of Baghdad were mixed. The front page of the Palestinian Authority (PA) daily Al-Ayyam, normally printed in color, today appeared in black and white. The Palestinian daily Al-Quds published a scene of Baghdad's "Liberation Square" - with the statue of Saddam still in place. The editor of the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, Hafez...

Shock and awe campaign routs liberals Liberals are no longer a threat to the nation. The new media have defeated them with free speech – the very freedom these fifth columnists hide behind whenever their speech gets them in hot water with the American people. Today, the truth is instantly available on the Internet, talk radio and Fox News Channel. No wonder liberals accuse Matt Drudge of absurd sodomic acts, call Rush Limbaugh a "big fat idiot," and say "really stupid people" watch Fox News Channel – as anti-war actress Janeane Garofalo said between assuring us that Saddam Hussein has...

Opening Night In Baghdad By David A. Fulghum In what may have been one of the most rapidly executed missions of the war so far, two F-117s of the 8th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron planned, loaded weapons, flew to Baghdad and bombed a residence where Saddam Hussein was spending the night--all in 4 hr. One of the two F-117s involved in the first night attack on Saddam Hussein and his sons returns to its Middle Eastern base after the no-notice mission. For the Mar. 19 mission that kicked off the conflict, members of the target cell in the combined air operations...

Ritter Off the Deep End Expert on children, not weapons Former UN Inspector Scott Ritter came to Cornell to speak yesterday regarding the failed diplomacy and, as he dubs it, the failed war in Iraq. His message was based in waging peace, not war, and as a former marine, he claimed he was no peacenik. Having spoken eloquently and convincingly, this writer wishes that the audience had taken a step back and thought about what Ritter was talking about. His first point was that an effects-based strategy (based on psychological warfare like shock and awe) involved a completely brand new...

<p>Jacques Chirac was probably sincere when he apologized yesterday to Queen Elizabeth II for the unspeakably vile graffiti his countrymen daubed on a memorial to British soldiers killed in the defense of France in World War I.</p> <p>"Dig up your trash, it's soiling our land." And this, employing the French put-down slang for Englishmen: "Rosbeefs go home. Saddam will win and cause your blood to flow."</p>

Sun Tzu: The real father of 'shock and awe' By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - While the US-led war on Iraq may not yet have succeeded in its stated aim of "liberating" Iraq and destroying its weapons of mass destruction, it may have succeeded in breathing new life into the writings of an ancient Asian mind - the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu. This week served up the latest about the Chinese thinker and general from the 5th century BC, who wrote the oldest military treatise on war, The Art of War; using knowledge he learned from fighting during China's Age...

Sun Tzu: The real father of 'shock and awe' By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK - While the US-led war on Iraq may not yet have succeeded in its stated aim of "liberating" Iraq and destroying its weapons of mass destruction, it may have succeeded in breathing new life into the writings of an ancient Asian mind - the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu. This week served up the latest about the Chinese thinker and general from the 5th century BC, who wrote the oldest military treatise on war, The Art of War; using knowledge he learned from fighting during China's Age...

<p>The U.S.-led air war spared too many targets in Iraq in the war's first days, taking some of the shock out of a campaign billed as "shock and awe," say military officials and outside analysts.</p> <p>"What they announced at the beginning of the war as shock and awe seems to me was largely PR," said Harlan Ullman, who co-authored the 1996 book, "Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance." "It did not bring the great shock and awe that we had envisaged."</p>

Patton's Sweep Is Cause for Confidence; While Bombings Didn't 'Awe' in VietnamBy Carla Anne Robbins, Greg Jaffe and Dan MorseWASHINGTON -- Gen. Tommy Franks, who is running the war against Iraq, says it's being fought "unlike any other in history." That may well be true of the overall war plan, which calls for a lightning drive to the capital, heavy reliance on precision bombing, a collapse of the Hussein regime and a mop up of remaining Iraqi forces afterward. But key elements of the campaign have echoes in other wars. The lessons from past conflicts -- some heartening, some sobering...

Now we know why "Team Heavy Metal" and "Team Rock and Roll" drove their 70 tanks and 60 armored troop carriers 700 miles across the sands and waddies of western Iraq to pop up at the city of Najaf, about 100 miles close to Baghdad. The 3rd Infantry's 2nd Brigade met little or no resistance on the way. There are two reasons for this speed across the sand. First, it puts the brigade in a good position to push into the flank of the Medina division of Republican Guard, and to get to Baghdad pretty quickly after that battle....

We hoped to be persuasive enough that it was not in their interest to obey orders to fight," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a news conference Friday afternoon, following the launch of the "shock and awe" air attack on Baghdad. Rumsfeld went on to say about the Iraqi leadership that "so far they've made very poor judgments. ... We urged them to surrender. They have not done so." Rumsfeld is a warrior, not a bureaucrat; exactly the right man for this difficult job. His tone is stern, as it should be in a war, but he is also brutally honest....

'Shock and Awe' Campaign Fails Aim So Far 25 minutes ago By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON - Nearly a week into the war, the U.S. "shock and awe" air campaign against the pillars of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s power has yet to achieve its broader aim: an early capitulation by the Iraqi regime that would avert all-out war for control of Baghdad. AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: War with Iraq Round-the-clock airstrikes in and around the capital have damaged or destroyed numerous government buildings and military compounds, and they have stifled some portion of Iraqi air...

<p>So what's it going to be? "Shock and awe" followed by quick capitulation? Or a long, hard slog in Iraq's barren sands and dangerous cities? Naturally, breathless TV commentators are all over the place as war coverage seesaws from the triumphalist to the somber. What to do amid this confusing chatter? Here's a handy guide to put the war in perspective for CNN addicts -- with apologies to Aaron Brown, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, and anchorpeople everywhere...</p>

The "Haiphong Effect" Warren Pollock Sunday, March 23, 2003 Overview Analysis Endnote BIO Reference on Haiphong Overview To draw a parallel to today it will be necessary to understand the strategy rather than the media definition of "Shock and Awe" and equate that policy to the history of Haiphong. From the late 1960's to May of 1972 Haiphong was allowed to function uncontested as a port of call for weapon shipments to North Vietnam. The issue at hand relates to limiting war and thereby limiting success. Today, war may be limited primarily by capability. Analysis Iraqi regulars and irregulars are...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 21 ? The American war on Saddam Hussein exploded tonight in a ferocious display of precision bombing and cruise missile strikes that blasted the heart of the Iraqi ruler's power with a spectacular opening bulls-eye on his most forbidding palace and continued with at least 100 more devastating volleys in the first two hours. Most of the strikes appeared aimed at the few square miles of central Baghdad that have been the monumental showcase for Mr. Hussein's brutal form of authoritarian rule. Perhaps 50 strikes came in a 10-minute volley of almost biblical power that followed...

Explosions Shake Baghdad Throughout Day By HAMZA HENDAWI .c The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Intermittent explosions were heard throughout the day Saturday as workmen swept glass from the streets after two days of fierce bombardments that destroyed presidential palaces, government offices and military headquarters. But as the day wore on, Iraqis were back in the streets in greater numbers than they had been since the start of the war. Small shops and restaurants reopened. Toward evening Saturday two more explosions rattled the city and there was a dark plume of smoke rising southwest of the city center. A...

B-52s leave UK March 22, 2003 07:57 B-52 bombers have begun taking off from RAF Fairford. Earlier today, a Greenpeace hot air balloon today dropped 500 anti-war leaflets over the base where 14 B-52 bombers were on stand-by. Greenpeace said they contacted the base, police and the Civil Aviation Authority in advance to ensure there was no risk. The leaflets highlighted the risk to the Iraqi civilians and US arms sales to Iraq.

Shock and Awe Begins--We Explain its Occult Meaning 21-Mar-2003 introduction by Whitley Strieber As bombers began taking off from aircraft carriers, from bases in Kuwait and elsewhere, and B-52s that started from England hours ago began to arrive over Iraq, the Pentagon announced that 'Shock and Awe' had begun. But did you know that this phrase has potent occult meaning? According to leading mythologist William Henry, Shock and Awe relates to the ancient Hebrew phrase Shak-In-Ah, meaning glory. SHOCK ‘n AWE (SHAK-IN-AH): WE WILL ROCK YOU by William Henry march-21-2003 A battle between the ancient forces of light (TARA) and...

Royal Marine commandos managed to secure the area’s oilfields yesterday. BAGHDAD felt the full force of the massive British and US "shock and awe" bombardment last night as allied forces made major advances on the ground, closing in on the key city of Basra. Waves of cruise missiles and bombs rained down on the Iraqi capital as what Pentagon sources described as "A-Day" left the city covered in raging fires. Several hundred targets were being attacked throughout the night, including Saddam Hussein’s palaces and key military installations. The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said the attack was designed to...