Free Republic

But the spoils of victory aren't going to last. On March 20th, 2003, one day after the United States and a "Coalition of the Willing" began its military assault of Iraq, China's Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the war. "The Chinese government appeals to the relevant countries to stop military actions and return to the right path of seeking a political solution to the Iraq question." Four years later, as a vicious anti-occupation insurgency in Iraq erupted into a full-blown civil war, China again expressed its displeasure with the operation, blasting the U.S. for "flagrant abuses of human rights"...

UPDATE U.S. Hits Republican Guard Near Euphrates By Geoffrey Mohan Times Staff Writer 8:49 AM PST, March 31, 2003 ALBU AZIZ, Iraq -- In its first offensive move since arriving in central Iraq last week, the second brigade of the U.S. Army's third infantry division swept into this village on the west bank of the Euphrates River today, killing about 26 soldiers, most of them from the Republican Guard. Led by the infantry and tank elements of the 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment, the column encountered small-arms fire, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades from Iraqi forces in this town across the...