<font color=orange>Two of FOXNEWS reporters (one's Olie North) are reporting that they have entered Baghdad proper with elements of the 3rd ID and the 1st MarDiv. They are under heavy fire, but are advancing!

Apparently Franks didn't want to waste much time! Could this be the beginning of the last battle? </font>

The beginning of a long series of last battles more like it...they should have stuck to a plan that calls for isolation of the city before moving in...they don't have all of the roads in and out of Baghdad under coalition control yet do they?

I don't think its a good idea but then what do I know, I'm just a girl. ;)

Whatever happens, I hope its over soon, I have too many loved ones on the waiting list to be shipped over. :(

[ 04-04-2003, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: Lil Lil ]

As of this evening they had taken the airport and were systematically clearing out the buildings there. It's huge and took a lot of time, but they are shoring up the perimeter and making it secure. CNN, ABC and MSNBC were all reporting that no air support or supplies can be flown in yet, as they haven't secured far enough out on the city side to prevent the Iraqui's from shooting down planes on a landing approach.

Yes, that has been the status as of early this afternoon as far as I knew. It was also reported (around 9:30 p.m. CST) that forces were working to secure the roadways in and out of the city. I certainly hope that they finish that job before driving into Baghdad proper with our men and women's lives at stake since the Fedayeen is known to have housed themselves up in the suburban areas around the airport.

WOW! I didn't believe it at first, I thought the resistance would be able to put up more of a fight but they set themselves up, entrenched along the roadside in tanks and trucks where they were toasted upon aproach as the U.S. forces moved through.

Amazing and sad at the same time...it'd be like seeing George Jetson's armed forces take on Fred Flintstone...even the U.S. commanders said they were unworthy opponents...they got points for their level of resistance but that didn't help anyone who wanted to get in the way of the 3rd ID.

These guys (from the highway signs I've seen) moved in from the North (?), heading towards the airport to clear/secure a path for supply units.
EDIT: They made a large U shaped path from the airport, into Baghdad and then back to the airport. [img]smile.gif[/img] Leaving my own earlier misunderstanding intact.

Good job...great job so far. The quicker this is all over, the better.

OT?:
I saw the Iraqi Minister of Imformation give a televised press conference where he said that U.S. forces had been surrounded and destroyed at Saddam Int'l Airport and even offered allow reporters to take a tour bus to see that the republican guard had it under control "as soon as they clean it up". What message does this man intend to put out to the other Arab nations viewing it (because Baghdad is largely without electricity) other than he is a desperate liar? Would you get on a tour bus that this man loaded? LOL.

He said that the U.S. is playing "Wag The Dog" with its citizens....I'd like to know where we could set up so many miles of buildings, houses, palm trees, Arabic highway signs, burning/exploding vintage Russian tanks, armored trucks, vans/trucks/cars loaded with suicidal extremists, Saddam Hussein portraits & statues, landmarks of Baghdad, and surrendering survivors of the republican guard to pull this off...maybe even apply to be an extra heh heh heh...there'd have to be good money in a production that big provided it is taking place within the boundaries of our own country. ;)

[ 04-05-2003, 09:42 AM: Message edited by: Lil Lil ]

The Iraqi mis-information minister is a trip to watch. Listening to him, you'd think that WE had lost over a hundred thousand, not them. This is like Goebbels telling the citizens of Berlin that those men in Soviet iniforms killing the Germans in the streets are not really there.

I wonder what all the fuss is about... is it expected that the war will be over once Baghdad is captured? I am not quite so sanguine about that -- in fact, I expect guerilla resistance to be a fact of life in Iraq for some time to come -- likely years.

After all, Paris fell quite quickly to Axis agressors in WWII, but the resistance continued until the enemy were driven from la belle patrie. Polish resistance continued even after the Germans were driven from Poland -- this time in opposition to the Soviet occupiers. And, in a more recent example, fighting continues in Afghanistan to this moment -- which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about the Afghan people.

Yes, indeedy, the Iraqi "misinformation minister" is certainly a disciple of Goebbels -- that is the nature of the beast. After all, calling the Coalition's blatent agression against Iraq "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is just as much of a "big lie" as any Iraqi claim. Propaganda ministers are supposed to make propaganda, that's in the job description. What distresses me is how so many of the "Free World's" supposed "Free Press" tout the Administration line like so many well-fed parrots.

I could be wrong, I've certainly been wrong before. [img]smile.gif[/img] But I expect that the West's War On Terrorism, People Who Have A Different Skin Color Or Religion And Also Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, and Anybody Who Looks At Us Funny Or Badmouths Us is going to continue for a long, long time. Of course, our own propaganda ministers can simply declare a "win" and move on at any time -- regardless of how many people continue to be slaughtered after the "war" is "over."

-- Mal

The 3rd ID's Excellent Adventure

The 3rd ID's little road trip thru downtown Baghdad was what the military likes to call a "reconaisance in force". They were basically daring Saddam's thugs to attack and wiping out any who were foolish enough to try.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more of these road trips in the days to come.

FOX just showed great footage of the 3rd ID with Steve Kelley embedded speeding along a highway into Bagdhad, with burning trucks and APC's on either side with Iraqis trying to surrender. Resistance was light with a few nodes of resistance.

Golly gee whillikers wow. What is this, a war or the play-by-play of a sporting event?

-- Mal