] The BBC's unrivalled team of correspondents is bringing
] you news from the Gulf and reaction from around the
] world. On this page BBC News Online logs their
] impressions and personal experiences as they watch events
] unfold.
]
] Wednesday, 26 March
]
] Most recent postings are at the top.
]
] Southern Iraq :: Clive Myrie :: 1743GMT
]
] The firefight has now been going on for sometime, almost
] 90 minutes. I understand there are 120 vehicles in this
] Iraqi convoy heading south from Basra, a huge convoy.
]
] The attack is still going on, I can hear the dull thud of
] missiles being dropped on these vehicles.

] There has been a remarkable performance by the Iraqi
] information minister who came on to the BBC roof to deny
] the coalition forces were here.

This was surreal. On the one hand, I'm watching live coverage of U.S. troops in Baghdad, I'm watching things being blown up, and seeing pictures of an M-1 tank at the entrance to a presidential palace. On the other, there's the Iraqi Information Minister on a rooftop, trying to claim that there are no U.S. troops in Baghdad. The smoke was so bad behind him that you could barely see the buildings, and according to one of the reporters there, there were gunshots and mortar fire less than a half a mile away, but the Information Minister was still smiling and saying that there were no troops in Baghdad, that the Americans were "surrounded and slaughtered" (right at that point I heard the audio of one of the Saddam statues being blown up by coalition forces), that the Iraqi army had "besieged and killed most of the Americans", etc. etc. Then over on english.aljazeera.net, the headline pops up, "U.S. Troops Suffer Heavy Losses in Baghdad Fighting."

Honestly, I don't blame many of the Arab populations for being so angry at the U.S., considering the one-sided "news" that is forced at them.

I don't believe it's a coincidence that the main participants in the "Coalition of the Willing" are english-speaking nations. It's not enough to have internet access around the world. In order to encourage the free flow of information, the language barriers *must* be addressed, and there has to be a higher standard of journalism encouraged for *all* languages. If the Arabic-speaking populations only want "news sources" that tell them what they want to hear, it's going to be just that much harder to find common ground for peaceful solutions.