For a continous war update see: The Agonist
For analysis see: dailyKOS and Talking Points Memo
For a blog of an unembedded journalist: Back to Iraq 2.0

Images of War

Airport security
An army vehicle from the 3rd Infantry Division moves past a burned out plane early Friday on a runway at Saddam International Airport early Friday. Click "Play" below the image to learn more about how U.S. forces captured the airfield, which they quickly renamed Baghdad International.
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Who Cares About Dead Iraqis?
Body counts, Rummy's plan, and the grisly stuff they don't want you to see
By Mark Morford

Dang that pesky collateral damage. Darn those brutal civilian deaths. Hundreds and hundreds of 'em, bloody decapitated mutilated bombed-out burned-out women and children and families, over there in Iraq.

Just another irritating little side effect, doncha know, of forcibly liberating a people who didn't really ask to be liberated and who are pretty much getting reamed from both ends and aren't exactly rushing out into the streets by the grateful thousands, as we had expected (except, finally, some in Najaf -- whew!) to toss flowers at the wide-eyed and confused U.S. troops and our well-armed Christian God and His almighty Starbucks franchises.

What happened there, anyway? Just bad PR? Someone miss a memo? Did no one tell them we are the Great Liberator, the bringer of peace and calm and nice big oil conglomerates that will soon help them "manage" all their hundreds of billions' worth of delicious natural resources? Haven't they seen the joy and happiness we have brought to Afghanistan? Oh wait.
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Where were the panicking crowds? Where were the food queues? Where were the empty streets?
Robert Fisk in Baghdad

A kind of fraudulent, nonchalant mood clogged Baghdad yesterday. There appeared to be no attempt to block the main highway into the city. Save for a few soldiers on the streets and a squad car of police, you might have thought this a holiday. All day yesterday, I asked myself the same question: where was the supposed American assault on Baghdad? Where were the panicking crowds? Where were the food queues? Where were the empty streets?

And what exactly were the Americans doing? They were surrounding the city, every foreign radio and television service insisted, but travellers still arrived from Amman. The city authorities have put more of their Chinese double-decker buses back on the streets – normal service, as they say, has been resumed – and the railway company claimed its trains were still leaving for northern Iraq.
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The war is not over yet

Some in blogistan are looking to the last few days and thinking the war is over or close to it. That is patently not true.

The US used it's last combat power to get to the Baghdad suburbs from the west, but the Marine divisions are still to the south and still fighting. Only the 3ID has anything like most of it's combat power up front, with brigades of the Marines still fighting holding actions as well as the 101st ABN fighting around Najaf. A break in operations is coming whether we want it or not.

The Iraqi Army is 400,000 men strong, not counting irregulars. The Feyadeen could be a problem for years to come. Not weeks, not months. Years. We're assuming that Saddam's death will diminish loyalty to him. That's a bad assumption. Look at the cult of Stalin. The army could walk away and then when they come home from the POW camps, form a Freikorp. (The post war army in Germany involved in combat after WW I)
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Who is the president?

I've been watching, increasingly disturbingly, how Donald Rumsfeld keeps making foriegn policy pronouncements: Syria's next, Iran better watch it, we'll only accept an unconditional surrender.

Excuse me, but isn't that the President's job? Rumsfeld is detested outside of the US. Even the Brits can't stand him, but every day he's making decisions I had foolishly been taught was the President's domain. Now, I'm not a political scientist, I studied history in college, but I can't for the life of me remember any Secretary of War or Defense who ever made such statements while the President was, oh, alive.
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Unravelling the mysteries of war Where have the guards gone and will Saddam use chemical weapons?

The Battle Plan for Baghdad?
A secret Pentagon report sketches seven scenarios.  thanks to daily KOS

Saddam's Greater Game

Analysis: The battle for Baghdad

Umm Qasr aid effort 'a shambles'

'Liberated' city where looters run wild and death stalks the streets

Scenes From the Burma Railway

US tells UN to Butt out   thanks to MetaFilter

I Miss America
Even Dick Nixon looks good to me now  thanks to Robot Wisdom