Free Republic

Each year around Thanksgiving, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals makes the evening news with some new campaign to get people to stop eating turkey. This year PETA wants me to believe that if I enjoy my annual serving of turkey at Thanksgiving, then I'm probably going to get the Asian bird flu. In order to make sure I'm aware of the threat, PETA members will "lie naked in flower-decorated coffins outside the Department of Agriculture" — just in case I walk by. As an alternative, PETA says I should ingest something called "tofurkey."Although I'll pass on the tofurkey,...

<p>Baghdad -- In the final days before Baghdad fell, Saddam Hussein's son Qusai issued a series of military orders that sent thousands of elite Republican Guard troops to their certain death in the open countryside.</p> <p>According to accounts provided to The Chronicle by more than a dozen Iraqi military officials -- some of them still hiding from American forces -- the orders exposed the core of the Iraqi military to devastating U.S. air attacks and left the capital's defenses markedly weakened.</p>

<p>The Army's only retreat in the lightning-fast war to oust Saddam Hussein came after an Iraqi general in the town of Najaf cell-phoned ahead to his troops that a regiment of Apache attack helicopters was on the way.</p> <p>"He used it to speed-dial a number of Iraqi defenders," Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the commander of Army V Corps in Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday via a teleconference hookup from Baghdad. "As our attack aviation approached the attack positions, they came under intense enemy fire."</p>

Washington -- Last Saturday, after awakening at 5:00 a.m. in Virginia's Shenandoah Mountains to hunt wild turkey, I showered and dressed in black tie for one of my favorite Washington evenings, the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. If I did not see any turkeys during the matutinal hunt, I was guaranteed to see them in abundance during the vespertine melee that this distinguished gathering has become. In all of New York there is nothing quite like it, though you can find an approximation of it on the Virginia countryside. I have in mind the county fair, at least the county...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 19, 2003 (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- Iraqi military commanders, certain they could never counter overwhelming American air power, thought they could defeat the United States by making a bloody stand for Baghdad that would so sicken the American public that the United States would withdraw its troops and go home. So Iraqi field commanders were surprised April 8, as they were preparing to battle American incursions into the capital, when they were ordered to withdraw and return to their bases north of the city, according to an Iraqi major...

Analysis: Iraqi forces are crumbling Matthew Gutman Apr. 5, 2003 Exiled Iraqi Army officers and Israeli experts barely raised an eyebrow at the relative ease with which coalition forces gained a choke hold on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Saturday. Following a 3rd Infantry Patrol into the what was dubbed "the heart of Baghdad," air force Capt. Dani Burrows told reporters at central command in Qatar that Baghdad is "pretty much cut off in all directions." "Forget what they tell you, no one in Iraq is wiling to die for Saddam. The Iraqi people are tired," Salam A., an...

The commander of the US-led air campaign in Iraq says Republican Guard units outside the capital Baghdad are "dead", following intense bombardment. "The Iraqi military as an organised defence in large combat formations doesn't really exist anymore," Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley told Pentagon reporters. General Moseley also announced that coalition aircraft had begun a 24-hour patrol operation over Baghdad to be able to respond to needs of troops on the ground. The announcement came after US forces - backed by tanks and armoured vehicles - made their first incursion into the Iraqi capital. They fought skirmishes with Iraq's elite Special Republican...

The mood changes as the marine invasion gains momentum James Meek outside Baghdad Saturday April 5, 2003 The Guardian For years, the story of the Republican Guard has been told as an epic in waiting, the story of an elite, well-equipped, motivated force, loyal to Saddam Hussein, outgunned by the US, no doubt, but ready to force America to fight and slog and shed blood if it tried to take Baghdad. In the cold light of yesterday morning, in a furrowed field by a shelled school building not far from the capital, the reality could be seen and heard. Three...

T THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, near Baghdad, April 5 — Lt. Col. Eric C. Schwartz did not see much of Baghdad this morning as his battalion of roughly 60 tanks, Bradleys and other armored vehicles churned along Route 8, rumbling through first an industrial, then a residential zone not far from the city's center.All he recalled, when it was over, were the Iraqi soldiers, the artillery batteries, the trucks mounted with machine guns, the wisp and blast of rocket-propelled grenades, the whiz of bullets, the fiery explosions of cars packed, he assumed, with explosives."It was three hours of organized chaos," he...

If any Iraqi soldiers had looked up at the right moment, they would only have seen the contrail of a B-52. The crew of that plane, we are told, dropped what looked like a fairly standard 1,000-pound bomb. But this particular one, dubbed the CBU-105, is seeing its first action ever in combat, and according to the U.S. Air Force, it is especially deadly. "It's a fearsome weapon," said John Pike, the head of globalsecurity.org and an ABC NEWS consultant. "If an armored convoy is moving down a road, an attack by this cluster bomb unit would basically stop that...

<p>BAGHDAD — As thick black smoke hung over the outskirts of Baghdad last night, American troops stood stunned by the number of enemy forces they had killed.</p> <p>Bodies dressed in the uniform of the Republican Guard and burned-out vehicles were strewn around the roadways. Buildings were riddled with bullet holes.</p>

U.S. says Republican Guard units moving south By John Chalmers AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar, April 3 (Reuters) - Elements of four Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were moving south on Thursday to engage U.S. troops as they closed in on Baghdad and its airport, U.S. military officials said. Washington says that two of the Republican Guard's divisions which had blocked the advance of U.S. forces to the Iraqi capital have been smashed and put out of action. Iraq denies that its elite force has suffered major losses. "The Baghdad Division and the Medina Division of the Republican Guard are no longer...

American forces pushed to within 20 miles of Baghdad yesterday after blasting through the Iraqi capital's shredded defenders. In a day of rapid advances, there were losses. Iraqi forces downed two U.S. aircraft in southern Iraq, killing at least seven soldiers. Four wounded survivors were rescued. South of the capital, Marines demolished the remnants of the Republican Guard's Baghdad Division near the Tigris River city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, and the Army's 3rd Infantry crushed the guard's Medina Division southwest of the capital. "The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the Baghdad regime," said Brig. Gen. Vincent...

<p>U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground forces smashed two of President Saddam Hussein's prized Republican Guard divisions and then moved relentlessly yesterday to attack other units to clear a direct invasion path to Baghdad.</p> <p>American divisions moved within 15 miles of the capital and began chasing down two other Republican Guard divisions in a two-sided buzz saw of tank fire from the ground, and bombs and missiles from allied jets and AH-64 Apache helicopters. One U.S. military official said Baghdad's outer ring could be cleared of Republican Guard troops in the next two days.</p>

<p>A new spy plane that can hover for hours and give commanders a prime TV view of the battlefield has proved crucial in this week's rapid coalition rout of the Iraqi Republican Guard.</p> <p>As part of the United States' ultramodern air war, the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle is being launched from a Persian Gulf nation and placed over the war zone south of Baghdad.</p>

<p>April 3, 2003 -- The U.S. Air Force unleashed a deadly new weapon during yesterday's onslaught against armored Republican Guard units - precision-guided cluster bombs that seek out and destroy dozens of combat vehicles in a single attack.</p> <p>B-52s carried six of the precision-guided bombs to the battlefield, where they were used to cut down a Republican Guard tank column as it advanced on approaching U.S. troops.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON - American rockets pounded Iraq's elite Republican Guard, which was heading south from Baghdad today in a desperate bid to protect the capital, military sources said.</p> <p>The Iraqi units aimed to bolster positions south of the city and guard Saddam International Airport, which are under threat by the U.S. advance.</p>

The Republican Guard consists of three armoured divisions (Medina south of Baghdad, Hammurabi in the west, and al-Nida in the north-east). Before the war each was equipped with around 200-250 T-72 Russian tanks but possibly also scores of lesser T-62s. The Guard also has one mechanised division, the Adnan, which was in the north near Mosul, but large parts of it have moved south towards Baghdad. The Baghdad infantry division was located south-east of the capital near Kut. Yesterday, it was reported the Medina ceased to exist as an organised strike force. The same was said about the Baghdad division...

U.S. planes pound Baghdad, loud blasts By Hassan Hafidh BAGHDAD, April 3 (Reuters) - U.S. planes pounded targets in the centre and outskirts of Baghdad early on Thursday, triggering relentless explosions with American troops just 30 km (19 miles) south of the Iraqi capital. U.S. war headquarters in Qatar said planes dropped almost 40 "smart bombs" overnight on just one military storage facility in the Karkh district of Baghdad. This correspondent heard a huge explosion in the city centre which shook buildings at about 2 a.m. (2300 GMT Wednesday). The explosion was followed by several loud blasts on the outskirts...

Republican Guard move south of Baghdad to block US SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 3 (Reuters) - Units of Iraq's Republican Guard were moving south from Baghdad on Thursday to try to block a U.S. advance and to reinforce positions around the capital's airport, U.S. military sources said on Thursday. U.S. spy planes had spotted the Iraqi reinforcements moving south from the capital during the night, the sources told Reuters correspondent Luke Baker. He said that U.S. forces, about 19 miles (30 km) from the southern outskirts of the city, were firing rockets north at the Iraqi positions.