March 20, 2003

Bush: Opening Stages of War Have Begun

Coalition forces began striking selected targets against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, President Bush announced in a live address from the Oval Office on Wednesday night.
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Aimed at cutting off the head of the snake, the president called for the attack ahead of schedule, according to defense officials. The Pentagon had told the news media earlier in the evening not to expect an attack on Wednesday night, which is Thursday morning in Iraq.
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Intelligence sources told Fox News that the military was aiming either at Saddam, his two sons or two other key Iraqi leaders that they had intelligence on. Sources said that intelligence officials knew where Saddam was eight hours ago and maybe sooner, and they can not rule out another surgical strike again.
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Several F-117 stealth fighters dropped two precision guided bombs each and as many as three dozen Tomahawk missiles were fired from ships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Now that military force has begun, sources with close ties to the Defense Department say they expect at least 1,000 bombs to fall as soon as the next wave.

"Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures and we will accept no outcome but victory," Bush said.
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White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had announced Bush's plans to speak on short notice.

Fleischer spoke as anti-aircraft fire and explosions were heard across Baghdad after air raid sirens went off at the capital at dawn.

What a night--and very reminiscent of that night back in January of 1991 when I watched the air attack on the "new, cutting-edge" cable channel CNN.

If the Saddam tape played on Iraqi TV after our attack was "live" and it was really him, I guess we didn't get him this time, but he looked and sounded pitiful and if I'd been Iraqi, I think I might have offed myself if my "fearless leader" looked so old and tired.
The Liberal Media isn't making very much of this--they're focusing their attention on the "negative" reaction from around the world to our attack and this story about a "top" White House anti-terror "boss" resigning.
They imply that it's to protest the war on Iraq, but the "top" "boss" insists he's quitting because we're "abandoning" the War on Terror, to fight the war in Iraq even though today, we launched an offensive in Aghanistan against Al Queda at the same time that we attacked Iraq by air:
U.S. Troops Raid Afghanistan in Hunt for Al Qaeda

About 20 minutes after U.S. troops lobbed an opening strike against Iraq the military also launched a terrorist-seeking raid in Afghanistan, Fox News has learned. The operation, dubbed "Valiant Strike," is taking place in the air and on the ground southeast of Kandahar.

About 1,000 troops from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division were combing southeastern Afghanistan for members of Al Qaeda and its elusive leader, Usama bin Laden. Operation Valiant Strike is the biggest U.S. terrorist-seeking operation in over a year, military officials said.

All I can say is that I am impressed as hell by the capabilities of Gen. Tommy Franks, not to mention our military!
Franks coordinated both of these attacks and the air attack on Iraq involved bringing together planes and missiles from probably 4-5 different locales.
We've now shown the enemy that we not only can find them with a great deal of specificity but that even with problems of logistics (such as our bases in Turkey being unavailable for launching sorties or docking facilities), we can successfully manoeuvre around those and still have maximum strike capacity.
Awesome, everybody.
May the remaining days of battle go as well as tonight's operations (except for the missing Saddam part, if indeed we did miss).
Now, I have to get some sleep.
I watched cable news for too long, hoping to hear we'd hit Saddam, and now I am beyond beat....
Back on duty tomorrow.