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Politics : The Liberation of Iraq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (34)	3/20/2003 3:16:51 PM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 908

yep....

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (34)	3/21/2003 4:28:54 PM
From: Tech Master	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 908

Rumsfeld: Saddam Losing Control of Iraq By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his lieutenants are "starting to lose control of their country," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday, and the United States pushed 100 miles into Iraq (news - web sites). Rumsfeld spoke at the Pentagon (news - web sites) shortly after the U.S. launched a long-awaited massive campaign against Iraq from the air, illuminating the nighttime skies of Baghdad. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "several hundred military targets will be hit over the coming hours." Enormous explosions were visible around Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, even as American officials continued surrender talks with senior Iraqi officials. The air campaign, which until Friday had been limited to selective strikes, escalated dramatically as U.S. ground forces rolled toward Baghdad. Pentagon officials have dubbed the aerial strategy "shock and awe" to reflect the goal of paralyzing the Iraqi military and compelling Saddam's regime to capitulate before U.S. and allied forces reached the gates of Baghdad. Rumsfeld was asked if the bombing indicated no agreement had been reached with the Iraqi military on surrendering. "That's for sure," he said. "The regime is starting to lose control of their country," Rumsfeld said. "The confusion of Iraqi officials is growing. Their ability to see what is happening on the battlefield ... and the control of their country is slipping away." Asked about Iraqi defections, Rumsfeld said, "Just off the top of my head, I can think of a few hundred." Myers said there was "no evidence to date" that the Iraqi military would attempt to blow up dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to flood vast sections of southern Iraq in hopes of slowing the U.S.-British advance. In any event, "We have taken some actions to mitigate that," he said, declining to elaborate. Myers said the Persian Gulf port city of Umm Qasr had been secured and southern Iraqi oil fields should be by day's end. Meanwhile, Rumsfeld asserted that, despite the intensity and fury of the bombardment, great care was being taken to minimize civilian casualties. "The targeting capabilities and the care that goes into targeting to see that the precise targets are struck and that other targets are not struck is as impressive as anything anyone could see," he said. The United States has an enormous fleet of Navy and Air Force warplanes that had been primed for the aerial bombardment, including B-52, B-1 and B-2 stealth bombers and a full array of fighter-bombers There are roughly 250 strike aircraft on five Navy aircraft carriers — three in the Gulf and two in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. These include F/A-18 Hornets and F-14 Tomcats. The Air Force's fighters are based mainly in Kuwait and Qatar, but there are many others in the region. All of these aircraft are capable of launching precision-guided bombs and missiles. Pentagon officials said the attack also included large numbers of Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from American ships and submarines in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. American and British troops encountered both hostile fire and white flags in their sprint across the desert Friday. Iraqi defenders offered stiff resistance in some pockets, firing intense artillery barrages that were answered in kind. The war's first casualties were reported. Two U.S. Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed — one in a gunfight as his unit advanced on an oil field, the other while fighting enemy Iraqi forces near the port of Umm Qasr. Hours earlier, eight British and four American soldiers died in a U.S. Marine helicopter crash that a British military spokesman said was an accident. Troops seized two airfield complexes in far western Iraq, known as H-2 and H-3, without much resistance from Iraqi troops, defense officials said. But they called control of the installations "tentative." They are important partly because Saddam Hussein is believed to have Scud missiles there. The H-3 airfield has been one of Iraq's primary air-defense installations.