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Washington -- The successful military campaign in Iraq has done nothing to mute the debate over Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's controversial plan to transform the U.S. military into a lighter, faster force heavily reliant on cutting-edge technology that no other country can hope to match.... ...In a way, the debate was really about the transformation plan. And even with Baghdad largely in U.S. hands, the argument continues. Some say looting and revenge killings could have been quickly stopped if more ground forces were on hand. The failure to insert the 4th Division into the north, they say, has stretched U.S....

American Marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. The war is not over yet. Saddam Hussein is still missing. Some of his gunmen remain on the loose. The last stages of hostilities are often the most dangerous for those who have survived combat. As a British conducting officer escorting me in Bosnia memorably remarked: "Military tourism frequently ends in tragedy." Nevertheless, the decisive stage of the war has clearly come to an end. The capital and almost all major towns in Iraq have fallen to the coalition. It is not possible to conceive of circumstances in which Saddam, if he is...

<p>Have you seen the April 7 issue of Time magazine? It appears that last week the Coalition of the Willing lost the war — and to Iraq, not to the Red Army, not to the Wehrmacht, not Napoleon's Grand Army, but to Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.</p>

UPDATE THURSDAY 4/9 NPR Drumbeat for UN Hegenomy Gets Frantic One day after the dawning of Iraqi freedom- NPR continues it's relentless campaign to put the worst possible light on events from the front. The moment, which encapsulated the truth that Iraqis were receiving the US coalition troops as liberators rather than conquerors, was the pulling down of one of the giant statues of Saddam and dragging the head through the streets of Bagdad. NPR managed to present even this epic event with as negative a spin as possible- through the audio-taped perspective of an Iraqi woman who had lost...

Coverage of the conflict has been confused and wilfully pessimistic, writes military historian John Keegan. SADDAM Hussein's war plan, if he had one, must be reckoned one of the most inept designed. It made no use of the country's natural defences. All advantages the defence enjoyed were thrown away even before they could be used. Because the war has taken such a strange form, the media may be forgiven for their misinterpretation of how it has progressed. Checks have been described as defeats, minor firefights as major battles. In truth, there has been almost no check to the onrush of...

Here's a selection of what the American Marxist Press is saying about the war: At Intersection, Army's Mission Turns To Chaos (Washington Post, April 8, 2003, Pg. 1) As Army troops barreled into the heart of Baghdad, a unit from the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division was ordered to hold onto a key cloverleaf in the southern part of the city. The mission sounded routine, but it quickly turned into five hours of killing and fiery chaos after an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a U.S. ammunition truck at the intersection. At least two soldiers of the 3rd...

War designed to fit a theory, as the Bush administration learned last week, can falter when key assumptions don't pan out. After months of selling its case, the Administration gave the impression it had devised a Teflon war: quick, easy, relatively bloodless. War boosters predicted that Iraq's leadership would snap, Iraqi forces would surrender, Iraqi citizens would welcome American soldiers with open arms. Now that the first week's fighting has sometimes failed to match those expectations, some experts are asserting that the U.S. was not prepared for some of the possible difficulties. By JOHANNA MCGEARY Sunday, Mar. 30, 2003 THERE...

Anyone watch CBS' 60 minutes. Am I just watching too much FOX and I'm not use to their straight coverage? I mean they just ran some BS about Jordon and how US is protecting their country and they turn on Hate America First.. Then they follow up with some questionable Arabs overstaying their tourist visas, boo hoo. Then Mike Wallace covering all the bases on how the administration is already F**kin-Up on the rebuild of Iraq. We are all going to DIE with the Bush Tax Cut...OH the Humanity...or is Hannity & Colmes?

How Fox is winning the war Take dollops of news by comely correspondents, and toss it atop a main dish of attitude led by charismatic, right-leaning hosts By Steve JohnsonTribune television criticPublished April 4, 2003They report. We deride.We deride Fox News Channel for saying "us" and "our" in talking about the American war effort, a strategy that conjures images of gung-ho anchor Shepard Smith, like Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove," riding a Tomahawk straight into Baghdad.We deride Fox for playing ratings politics with the news, turning Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers' public call Tuesday for media to be "fair and...

General amused by analysts 04/06/2003 From Staff Reports WASHINGTON – Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael "Buzz" Moseley may be commander of the U.S.-British air effort over Iraq, but he was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, where plain-spokenness is a virtue. Asked Saturday about critics of the U.S. war plan, especially the many former military officers on television, Gen. Moseley said he found it humorous. "Retired military people from various grades, from major to general, seem to feel free to comment on a plan that they have never seen ... or have any understanding of," he said. "I grew up in...

In the Second World War, the Germans gave a word to the kind of hopeless military dilemma that Saddam Hussein now faces. They called it a kessel - a cauldron. Sealed in by encircling US troops, the Iraqi leader is bottled up inside his capital city. If he is still alive, it is going to be his fate to stew in Baghdad, it seems. Certainly, the remnants of Saddam's regime, if not yet defeated, have been shrunk to a modest, albeit still dangerous, enclave. The question is: how come? How have allied forces managed to lay siege to the Iraqi...

Who's giving the president good counsel? A GROUP identified as administration officials, anxious advisers of President Bush, former Republican officeholders, and party leaders told the Washington Post early last week that the president has been getting "bum advice" from his top advisers on the war with Iraq. The group, whose members include "some close to" Secretary of State Colin Powell, was described as poised to intervene with Bush through his father, the elder President Bush. Their complaint was that the war is bogged down because too few ground troops were deployed in Iraq and Bush's war advisers may lead the...

<p>HEN THE NORTH Vietnamese first encountered American firepower in the valley of Ia Drang nearly four decades ago, they developed a new tactic called ''grab them by the belt.'' What they meant was: Get close enough to the Americans so that some of their firepower will be neutralized in such close proximity. The Iraqis learned that lesson in 1991 when they put all their chips on defeating the Americans in the open desert. This time they mean to grab us by the belt by fighting in the cities.</p>

<p>War designed to fit a theory, as the Bush administration learned last week, can falter when key assumptions don't pan out. After months of selling its case, the Administration gave the impression it had devised a Teflon war: quick, easy, relatively bloodless. War boosters predicted that Iraq's leadership would snap, Iraqi forces would surrender, Iraqi citizens would welcome American soldiers with open arms. Now that the first week's fighting has sometimes failed to match those expectations, some experts are asserting that the U.S. was not prepared for some of the possible difficulties.</p>

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - Despite setbacks on the road to Baghdad, President George W. Bush gave Americans on Saturday an upbeat assessment of U.S. military operations in Iraq, saying troops were less than 50 miles (80 km) from the capital and fighting the "most desperate" Iraqi army units. The Pentagon also launched a graphic public relations offensive aimed at demonizing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his fighters and rallying public opinion behind the war. So far, Bush appears to be picking up support at home despite questions about military tactics, mounting civilian casualties and the duration of the U.S.-led...

April 3, 2003, 7:30 a.m. Thus Far Approaching victory. By NR Editors, from the April 21, 2003, issue. In the first two weeks of war, our Coalition forces have advanced quickly toward Baghdad; secured Iraq’s southern oil fields; captured several bridges over the Euphrates; and taken complete ownership of Iraqi airspace. We have lost no engagements with the enemy. In the months leading up to the war, many people worried that it would start with chemical-weapons deployments and missile attacks on Israel. These have not happened. While every loss is one too many, we allies have suffered only 73 casualties,...

As at this writing (12:00 GMT, 16:00 Baghdad time, April 3), elements of the US 3rd Infantry Division are within reach of Baghdad's Saddam Hussein International Airport southwest of the city and elements of the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force have closed to within 10 miles of Baghdad from the east. The US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, reports that US Special Forces (and, one assumes, Central Intelligence Agency paramilitaries) have seized critical command and control facilities inside Baghdad. On that information, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's "guess" at the outset of the war that Baghdad will fall "from the...

If you thought the rabid anti-Americanism displayed by such bottom-sucking slugs as Michael Moore was as low as Hollywood can sink, think again. The producer of the CBS miniseries "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" says it is a warning to the American people that if they don't watch out the Bush administration could morph into a carbon copy of Hitler's National Socialist dictatorship. According to the New York Post, something called Ed Gernon, the CBS producer of the Hitler miniseries starring Robert Carlyle, Peter O'Toole and Julianna Margulies, says he sees the program as a warning for Americans about the...

DeLay Defends Bush Against War Plan Critics Also Labels Recent Human Rights Report 'Absurd' WASHINGTON, April 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) blamed the sometimes negative tone of the media's war coverage on the "blow dried Napoleons" from the 24-hour news outlets in a speech tonight to the pro-Israel organization, Stand For Israel. "The president is a man of faith and a man of confidence but it must frustrate him to hear the incessant carping of blow-dried Napoleons, hunkered down in their air conditioned studios night after night on the 24-hour news networks," DeLay said. "We...

April 1, 2003 Bush Defends the Progress of the WarBy ADAM NAGOURNEY and DAVID E. SANGER ASHINGTON, March 31 — President Bush mounted a vigorous defense today of the progress made in the war against Iraq, seeking to rebut concerns in the military and nervousness within his own party about how the conflict is going and how it was planned. "In 11 days, coalition forces have taken control of most of western and southern Iraq," Mr. Bush said to cheers from Coast Guard employees at the port of Philadelphia. "Day by day, we are moving closer to Baghdad. Day by...