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The house blended into its quiet eastside neighborhood, marked only by a blue star in the window and a small, square sign reading "Welcome Home Tim." Somewhere a vacuum cleaner's rumbling voice broke the sunny afternoon hush. The setting hardly could be more different from the patch of Iraqi desert where Army Specialist Timothy Sazueta stood two weeks ago when an improvised explosive device exploded next to him. "It didn't hit me, initially, that I'd been blown up," said Sazueta, 22, of Lancaster. "I was still standing. You don't go flying" like in the movies. His teammates yelled at Sazueta...

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's cousin and two other former regime officials were convicted Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang for the brutal crackdown that killed up to 180,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas two decades ago. Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 1987-1988 crackdown, known as "Operation Anfal." A sixth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Death sentences are automatically appealed. The most notorious defendant was Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for ordering the use of mustard gas and nerve agents...

The U.S. military said Sunday that 14 American soldiers were killed over the past three days, including four in a single roadside bombing and another who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol. The blast that killed the four U.S. soldiers occurred Sunday as the troops were conducting a cordon and search operation northwest of Baghdad, according to a statement. Two other soldiers were killed and five were wounded along with an Iraqi interpreter in two separate roadside bombings on Sunday, the military said. In the boldest attack, a U.S. soldier was killed Friday after the...

The US military said on Tuesday that it had credible evidence linking Iranians and Iraqi militiamen, detained here in raids last week, to criminal activities, including attacks against US forces. Evidence also emerged that some of the detainees were involved in shipments of weapons to illegal armed groups in Iraq. Major General William Caldwell, the chief spokesman for the US command, said that the military, in the raid, had "gathered specific intelligence from highly credible sources that linked individuals and locations with criminal activities against Iraqi civilians, security forces and coalition force personnel." Caldwell made his remarks by e-mail in...

One of the favorite lines by our leftist friends is that the reasons for war by Bush keep changing. Personally, I don't buy that at all. I've been using the State of the Union Address prior to the war, the speech to the UN General Assembly as my guiding tools here. I find that there were about 8 or 9 reasons given, not just the WMD reason. I'm trying to dispute this garbage from the left but I'm looking for some better sources. Any help folks? Reasons I have documented (most of which are true or on their way) 1)...

CRAWFORD – The president's supporters are rallying behind a new slogan: Enough is enough. Critics of the peace movement and war mom Cindy Sheehan arrived in Crawford by car and by motorcycle Saturday to show support for President Bush and the Iraq war. In one demonstration, about 350 bikers buzzed the camps arranged by Sheehan and other demonstrators calling on the president to be accountable for the war. While the day was relatively quiet at the peace camp entrenched near the Western White House, Bush's supporters gathered in downtown Crawford. “The silent majority has arrived and, hey, the cavalry's on...

An occasional column in which the Los Angeles Times invites outside critics to wallop a Southern California newspaper, even when it has a new editor and a new publisher who would no doubt prefer a bri ------------ I CANNOT IMAGINE what it would be like to lose my child the way Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Casey, in Iraq. The bereaved mother, who until Thursday had been camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, has every right to protest the war, and her demonstration was certainly news. But in its apparent zeal to portray Sheehan as the Rosa Parks...

'The Sheikh of the Slaughterers': Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi and the Al-Qa'ida Connection By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli* Introduction Shortly after the occupation of Iraq in April 2003, Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi emerged as a leading terrorist in that country. While a number of terrorist organizations are operating in Iraq besides the insurgency movement led by Saddam's former intelligence and loyalist groups, Al-Zarqawi's organization combines terrorist activities with an ardent anti-Shi'ite zeal designed to instigate a civil war between the Iraqi Sunnis and the Shi'ites. This paper explores Al-Zarqawi's words and actions and his linkage with al-Qa'ida under the leadership of Osama bin...

AS you can see Kerry today said, "I have consistently said Hussein was a threat" Then from the transcript from the first debate with President Bush he said and I quote, "Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it." Now hey bastard, explain this! Either they are a threat or they aren't. Quit having it both ways!

The United States ground led assault on Iraq is 'the greatest advance in the history of warfare,' even compared with the German blitzkrieg of Europe in World War 2 a Massey University defence analyist says.Piers Reid of the University Centre of Defence Studies said that United States coalition forces are 'going forward at an incredible rate.'Dr. Reid, a former New Zealand army chief, predicted the war in Iraq would be wrapped up in a few weeks.He said the superior firepower of Amercian forces was advancing virtually unchecked in the desert.'The Americans own the desert,' If the Iraqis try and stall...