GOTTA SEE THIS-WarEndur.Freedom 12/24/02-Biladi,El-Basil,Kuwait,Caliskan,Chamchamal,Cizre

Yahoo, AP, Reuters, and the usual suspects and armies of brave photographers and reporters | 12/24/02 | The Armies of Good against the Axis of Evil

[Diogenesis]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
and thank you for all the kind words, educating posts,
and well wishes. Stay safe.

[Diogenesis]

Bump for peace. It will come.

[Poohbah]

Peace through superior firepower!

[hchutch]

I think the Predator caption might be on to something...

That UAV was close to SOMETHING that Saddam wanted to protect.

[eureka!]

Diogenesis--I find it hard to find the words to describe the daily emotions that your pictures and words give rise to. You are a treasure here. Merry Christmas and the happiest of holidays to you and yours...

[Poohbah]

Right. The question is...did we get the pictures? Remember, that thing operates with a gee-whiz datalink.

[Bahbah]

Bump for peace. Merry Christmas, Dio, and thanks.

[KC_Conspirator]

I believe that Drew Carey is still in the marine reserves.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Bless you for all you do, Dio. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and may 2003 see the destruction of the enemies of the United States.

[The Real Deal]

Merry Christmas, and thanks for the great pics!

[hchutch]

Well, figure it took time to scramble the fighter and for the fighter to get to the location. Plus the time to tell Saddam - that fighter was NOT launched on somebody's initiative. Initiative is approved of here, but NOT in dictatorships (too easy to turn on the dictator).

We'd have to go over the entire tape, though. We don't know what that Predator saw, but it saw something that Saddam wanted hidden real bad. Badly enough to risk a fighter through a hole in our fighter coverage.

[Magnum44]

That UAV was close to SOMETHING that Saddam wanted to protect.

Perhaps, but Saddam wouldn't know if it was. He's just been trying to show some 'Victory' for his own public consumpion purposes. So trying to shoot any A/C down is a symbol to him.

[r9etb]

The question is...did we get the pictures? Remember, that thing operates with a gee-whiz datalink.

No doubt we got pictures of something. Personally, though, I think this was more a result of typical Iraqi target practice, than us getting close to something sensitive. They've been shooting at these things for months, and occasionally they'll get lucky.

[Poohbah]

Except that they scrambled an airplane and flew it into the no-fly zone. Big chance taken; logic suggests that they were desperate. And believe me, the entire tape will be examined frame by frame, because this thing IS so far out of their normal behavior.

Can y'all say "material breach?" Saddam may have handed us the smoking gun.

[Squantos]

Golden BB .........Bump to the top !

Stay Safe !

[hchutch]

Or, he's got something he is hiding...

For all we know, the Predator was looking for something but didn't get the data off.

[r9etb]

Can y'all say "material breach?" Saddam may have handed us the smoking gun.

Why would we expect him to do otherwise? Saddam is his own worst enemy.

I agree that we'll be going over the data frame by frame; and we may indeed see something sensitive. However, I'm gonna stick to my "target practice" theory for the time being.

[r9etb]

For all we know, the Predator was looking for something but didn't get the data off.

I don't think these guys record anything that they don't also transmit.

[P8riot]

For all we know, the Predator was looking for something but didn't get the data off.

The operative being:

For all we know.....

[EternalVigilance]

If the inspections were really serious, they would send her:

The Iraqis would not only surrender, they would kill themselves!