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Developed to replace the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E is a dedicated multi-role version of the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter: named “Strike Eagle” to point out its attack capabilities, the F-15E is one of the best fighter bombers ever built. The F-15E saw action for the first time during Operation Desert Storm, the campaign aimed to free Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion: during the war the aircraft was mainly tasked to attack fixed and mobile Scud missile sites as well as Surface to Air Missile (SAM) ramps. And it was during Desert Storm that...

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the start of the First Persian Gulf War also known as Operation Desert Storm. I was a 29-year-old Captain in the First Infantry Division, “The Big Red One” at Ft. Riley in Kansas. Angela and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary in December 1990 and now I was deploying into combat — something she had seen her own dad do twice to Vietnam. I was the Fire Support Officer for Task Force 2-16 Infantry (call sign Ranger 14) in the 2nd Brigade (Dagger). Our mission was to be the lead task force of...

Brent Scowcroft, military assistant to President Nixon, and National Security Advisor to Presidents Ford and H.W. Bush, continues his attack on the bush foreign policy and Iraq War in an interview by Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker (not available without subscription). In The Washington Note, Steven C. Clemons provides excerpts (here) from the interview: A principal reason that the Bush Administration gave no thought to unseating Saddam was that Brent Scowcroft gave no thought to it. An American occupation of Iraq would be politically and militarily untenable, Scowcroft told Bush. And though the President had employed the rhetoric of...

SAM MENDES has the unenviable distinction of having directed one of the three most undeserving Best Picture winners in the last 30 years. In 1999, his directorial debut, American Beauty, won the Oscar and then, immediately, began sliding to oblivion. A paint-by-numbers critique of American middle-class mores, American Beauty was so heavy-handed and obvious as to be insulting even to the elite sophisticates it attempted to flatter. Of course experimentation with marijuana brings happiness. Of course the homophobic, wife-beating Marine father next door is really a closet case. Of course the only well-adjusted adults in the neighborhood are the...

Shortly, the 2,000th death of an American serviceman or woman will occur in Iraq. That will generate an orgy of coverage in the American press on how “deadly” the war is. Sidebars will suggest that citizens are becoming “increasingly doubtful” about the conduct of the war. This Newsbusters article denounces that coverage as dishonest, in advance. I wrote on 24 April, 2004, that the War on Terror is the LEAST bloody war in the history of the United States, measured by deaths per month. This is true going back to the Revolutionary War, even though the nation’s population then was...

SIERRA VISTA - America's fallen heroes will be remembered Monday at Memorial Day services in Sierra Vista and Bisbee. Fort Huachuca will hold its annual ceremony at the post cemetery at 11.30 a.m. The event will pay tribute to the U.S. military's fallen comrades from past and present conflicts. "Fort Huachuca will remember the brave service members who sacrificed their lives in World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Desert Shield/Desert Storm and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom," said Grant Nulle, a Fort Huachuca public affairs spokesman. Maj. Gen. Barbara G. Fast, commander of the...

As Saddam Hussein pressed the United Nations oil-for-food relief program for more money that he used to buy banned weapons, an unwitting ally may have been the American driver. Almost until the eve of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, American oil companies were among the largest purchasers of Iraqi crude oil. The role that the companies, including ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, played in the oil-for-food program is now coming under greater scrutiny in the wake of a report by the chief arms inspector for the Central Intelligence Agency that disclosed how extensively Mr. Hussein was abusing profits from the...

I recall reading somewhere that Islamicists were trying to recruit GWI vets for their jihad. This is in relation to Timothy McVeigh, et al. I thought I read it here on FR, but after 1.5 hrs searching, I cannot find a thing. Any help would be appreciated.

<p>It’s about time someone laid out the facts so that the media can stop the Bush bashing over the lie about the war with Iraq being "unilateral". Many of the current 2004 democrat presidential wannabees have consistently stated their objections to the "process" in which the Iraq war was fought, not the fact that the war was fought. After all, many of them (in the senate) voted in favor of giving President Bush the authority to use force.</p>

Finally, The Real Reason We Invaded Iraq Has Been Revealed By Chuck Baldwin Food For Thought From The Chuck Wagon September 26, 2003 Initially, the invasion of Iraq was sold to the American people on the premise that Iraq posed an immediate risk to the safety and security of the United States. We were told that Iraq had amassed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and if we did not attack first, we were sure to be victimized by terrorist attacks from Iraq. Americans were also told that there were significant ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It was even propounded...

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — The Palestinian prime minister condemned the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a reversal that could help patch relations 13 years after they soured because of Palestinian backing for Saddam Hussein. Mahmoud Abbas, on a tour of the Gulf region, had postponed a visit to Kuwait because, Kuwaiti officials said, he was hesitant about denouncing the Iraqi invasion — as Kuwait had demanded. But Abbas told the Kuwait News Agency on Monday that the Palestinian leadership's pro-Saddam position 13 years ago was "incorrect" and he understood why Kuwaitis were "angry and reproachful." "Speaking for the Palestinian Authority,...

U.S. Forces Interrogating Iraqis About Pilot Missing Since 1991 Jun 24, 2003 The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. forces interrogating some Iraqi prisoners are seeking details about the case of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, missing since his fighter jet was shot down on the opening night of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday. Rumsfeld would not say whether there were any new clues to the fate of Speicher, the only American serviceman still listed as missing from the Gulf War. "There is nothing that has been turned up thus far that I...

'Mass grave of Kuwaiti PoWs found in Iraq'A mass grave of about 600 missing Kuwaiti prisoners of war has reportedly been discovered in Iraq. It is believed the prisoners were taken from Kuwait during the first Gulf War in 1991. Workers from the Iraqi National Congress say they made the grim find at an airbase in the town of Habbaniyah, north-west of Baghdad. The Congress members were exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein, but have now returned to Iraq to help restore normality to the country. INC workers say they uncovered the grave after tip-offs from locals that 600 Kuwaiti PoWs...

(UPI) -- In the first Gulf War, Brian O'Meara was a Marine stationed on the U.S.N.S. Curtiss and while there he misplaced a letter sent to him from his family. The Seattle Times reports O'Meara, now a postal service worker in Redmond, Wash., got the surprise of his life last week when his letter was returned -- sent to him from four Marines now stationed on the Curtiss in this second war with Iraq. The Times reports the Marines added their own note: "As I'm sure you're aware we are back on the boat in the Persian Gulf again. This...

Young Iraqi-born Mohammed, left, Ban, center, and Saleh, right, were among the children who during the first Guf War experienced the horror of living in a bombed city. (ABCNEWS)   The Children of ’91 Young Survivors of First Gulf War Recall Bombing of Baghdad March 28— In an effort to learn what it's like to live in a besieged Baghdad, ABCNEWS' Barbara Walters sat down with five survivors of the bombing in the last Gulf War. Young adults now, they were children when American bombs rained from the sky in 1991. They tell her what they experienced, and what...

Gulf War "I" Ended on Purim. Prayer Needed As Gulf War" II" COULD Start on or close to Purim Some Urgent Prayer Points for Purim Rick Ridings from Jerusalem rickridings@compuserve.com Mar 16, 2003 Interestingly enough this evening (March 16) and tomorrow are called the “Fast of Esther” in the Hebrew Calendar. Tomorrow evening (Monday, 17 March) at sundown begins the Hebrew “Feast of Purim”, the annual celebration of the great, miraculous intervention of God recorded in the book of Esther. This is the anniversary of the amazing turn-around, when Haman, who had cleverly planned the destruction of the Jews, ended...

Scott Speicher U.S. Navy photo. It's been more than 12 years since Captain Scott Speicher was shot down while on a combat mission over Iraq during the first night of Desert Storm, becoming the first American casualty of the war. Initially classified by the Department of Defense as KIA/BNR (killed in action, body not recovered), Captain Speicher made history again in January 2001, when he became the first American service member ever to be switched from a status of KIA to MIA (missing in action). Get the full story Friends Working to Free Scott Speicher