Free Republic

CAIRO, Egypt - A U.S.-British air raid in southern Iraq this weekend destroyed a major military surveillance site that monitors American troops in the Persian Gulf, witnesses said Tuesday. The Iraqi military said the allied warplanes on Sunday bombed areas in Basra province, 330 miles south of Baghdad, killing eight civilians and wounding nine others. The U.S. Central Command in Florida said coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike two air defense radar systems near Basra "in response to recent Iraqi hostile acts against coalition aircraft monitoring the southern no-fly zone." The witnesses, Iraqis who said they were at the...

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - As debate rages about the wisdom of launching a military strike against Iraq, a leading defense publication Thursday called into question some of the key arguments against an attack, saying that many of the critics had been proven wrong in the past. Jane's Foreign Report said its access to Bush administration thinking had led it to the view that opponents of an attack may be exaggerating the dangers while underestimating the advantages of a successful operation for the wider Middle East. That assessment comes at a time politicians in the U.S. and key allies...