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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (84712)	3/21/2003 7:58:52 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Karen Lawrence who wrote (76749) From: Nadine Carroll Sunday, Feb 23, 2003 12:06 PM View Replies (2) \| Respond to of 83336 I WROTE: I'm worried about Bush will make good on his threat to bomb Baghdad into oblivion YOU WROTE:Bush has never made any such threat. Don't be absurd. DON'T BE ABSURD???!!!!! You're such a ....OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM 'Shock and awe' campaign starts Coalition forces bombard Baghdad, northern cities in massive air attack worldnetdaily.com March 21, 2003 5:13 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The sensational "shock and awe" air campaign of the war on Iraq is underway after a series of massive explosions rocked Baghdad amid Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. Television footage showed dozens of blasts, fireballs eating up buildings and dark mushroom clouds blotting out the skyline of the Iraqi capital. Several fires raged across the city afterwards, including at the presidential palace compound. MSNBC correspondent Peter Arnett estimated 25 buildings were demolished in a span of ten minutes. "The main presidential building was blown away," he said. Explosions have also been reported in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, where Republican Guard headquarters have been hit. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said several hundred military targets will be hit throughout Iraq "over the coming hours." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference after the start of the intense bombardment. "Coalition military operations are focused on achieving several specific objectives," he said, then described the first as "end[ing] the regime of Saddam Hussein by striking with force on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished." "Our goal is to defend the American people and to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destrution and to liberate the Iraqi people," he said. Earlier, senior Defense officials confirmed today is "A Day," or Aerial Day, in which coalition forces may drop as many as 3,000 precision-guided bombs. The first explosion was felt in Baghdad at approximately noon Eastern Time. Minutes prior, 320 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from ships in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. At 8 a.m. Eastern Time, eight American B-52 bombers took off from Fairford Airbase in Britain, signaling the massive airstrikes would soon be launched. The eight joined six other B-52s that left Fairford yesterday for pre-positioning closer to Iraq. According to Fox, these heavy, high-altitude bombers can carry 12 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs, eight Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles, or CALCMs, inside and another 12 non-precision bombs. The "mother of all bombs" may be among those dropped, reports Fox News. As WorldNetDaily reported, the 21,000-pound MOAB, or Massive Ordnance Air Burst, bomb was successfully live-tested at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle two weeks ago. The force of its blast rivals that of a small nuclear bomb and can knock over tanks and kill any people within several hundred meters of the detonation. At the press conference, the Defense secretary took the offensive and rejected comparisons made by television commentators between this air campaign and more famous bombing campaigns of World War II. He said the "overwhelming majority" of the weapons being used have a degree of precision that no one even dreamt of in a prior conflict. He added that the "humanity" that goes into the targeting also renders the comparison "inaccurate." Pressing toward Baghdad Meanwhile, ground forces have pushed close to 100 miles inside iraq, from the north, south and west. Coalition troops moved in on Basra, a strategic city that's key to Iraq's oil production, with orders to prevent sabotage at the refinery. Iraqi television reports coalition forces hit a military site in Basra and another target in Akashat, a town about 300 miles west of Baghdad near the Syrian border. Marines encountered armed resistance as they seized the strategic southern Iraqi port town of Umm Qasr. "Umm Qasr has been overwhelmed by the U.S. Marines and now is in coalition hands," Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of the UK General Staff, told reporters at a news conference in London. Special Forces have seized an airfield in western Iraq and secured border positions in several key locations. Navy SEALs and coalition Special Forces seized Iraq's two major gas and oil terminals in the northern Persian Gulf The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division advanced into the center of Iraq and is moving towards the town of Nasiriya - a key crossing point over the Euphrates river on the way to Baghdad. U.S. Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf intercepted two Iraqi tugboats that had a cargo of weapons, uniformas and 130 mines. Officials suspect the mines were planned for sabotage attacks. The Pentagon expressed guarded satisfaction over progress of the war thus far. "We're basically on our plan, and moving towards Baghdad but there are still many unknowns out there," Myers told reporters. "The regime is starting to lose control of their country," Rumsfeld said. Both Rumsfeld and Myers offered condolences to the families of soldiers lost in the battle. A U.S. Marine helicopter crashed in Kuwait yesterday, killing the 4 American and 8 British soldiers on board. Military officials are investigating the cause of the crash. No hostile fire was reported in the area. The CH-46 Sea Knight serves as a flying shuttle bus of sorts to deliver troops from ships or base camps to forward positions. It went down about 9 miles away from the border with Iraq. The U.S. also suffered its first combat casualty early this morning. A Marine was shot dead while his company was working to secure a burning oil-pumping station. A second Marine died this afternoon while fighting Iraqi forces near the port of Umm Qasr.