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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...