] The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division met strong fire and
] resistance when it tried to enter An Nasiriyah, where it
] would cross the Euphrates, sources in the Russian
] military say. Iraqi infantry units supported by the
] Republican Guard reportedly blocked the U.S. forces'
] advance. The sources said the 3rd Infantry declined
] further combat and moved down the western bank of the
] Euphrates.

1. This is a great blow by blow war blog.
2. Yup, it appears at least possible that a US military unit "retreated." The Iraqi information minister was not lieing about that in the statement made around midnight CST. He was spinning it hard, but he wasn't lieing.

The Agonist--by Sean Paul Kelley

Decius wrote:

] I don't really need to rip the Iraqi propaganda. The press is
] happy to offer every imaginable question about it whenever it
] is released. However, at least the American press is never,
] ever seen to question the information coming out of the U.S.
] Military. I've turned my TV off serveral times simply because
] I didn't feel like I wanted to be treated like an idiot
] anymore. They are covering this like a football game, and they
] seem completely naive about how they are being manipulated.
]

This is finally getting to me. How on earth can you reconcile the worlds of military intelligence, battlefield tactics and 24-hour news channels? Are we looking at the best possible compromise, or just being force-fed the Gerber Baby Propaganda?
We all know that everyone else in the world (including Iraq) is watching CNN. How much can we expect from any such coverage?

I'm afraid to say that this whole thing is showing that we (the info-rich individuals with half of a skeptic bone in our body who wish that the Internet was able to serve us the raw data that it SHOULD) have absolutely nothing when compared with the MediaMachine. Raw Data? The lowest common demoninator rules this land, and the LCD just loves to know that the RedWhiteBlue is flying high over some poor little brown people who need to be liberated. In the meantime, CNN is going to show the LCD what it wants to see, which is tanks rolling across the battlefield. In the meantime, when someone finds a good (deleted) who can forward along battlefield recon data, let me know - I'm game.

] Seriously, in Bush's talk on Monday he gave the EXACT time
] when the conflict would begin. We ALL turned on our TVs at
] that exact time. We all saw exactly what we expected to see.

Well, give them a little bit of credit ... When you know that the war machine is about to come barrelling over you and you have a chance to avoid it... I seem to recall that there were some memes around here about Saddam making some kind of movement in the last few hours... which actually seemed kind of likely, didn't it?

Sorry. I'm just mad because I've spent a lot of good time and effort towards helping my inner child defeat my inner cynic. The inner cynic has, in the past few days, fairly abused my inner child.

My inner cynic says he's worried that Baghdad will go up in a nuclear blast as soon as it looks like it's about to be taken, but my inner cynic is also paranoid as hell.

I don't thin it will end up in a nuclear blast. I think they have done a good job in showing some restraint and sparing as many cicilians as possible.

The press is always manipilated during wartimme. What better wa to spread disinformation and win the psychological war. However, I think what we are recieving is far more of an actual protrayal that what the Iraqis are seeing.

RE: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military mind games

] The search is on for more than $US6 billion ($10 billion)
] that the United States believes Saddam Hussein and his
] inner circle have stashed around the globe.
]
] "Today we launched a financial offensive against the
] regime of Saddam Hussein," said the US Treasury
] Secretary, John Snow.

US hunts regime's hidden billions

Iraqis appear to fire banned missiles
By DAFNA LINZER
Associated Press

The very missiles Saddam Hussein fired at U.S. forces in Kuwait
appear to have been the same weapons he either claimed not to possess or agreed to destroy.

U.S., British and Kuwait military officials said Iraq fired at least three missiles Thursday - though they differed on how many of them were Scuds.

AP Wire | 03/20/2003 | Iraqis appear to fire banned missiles

] Traces of the poison ricin have been found at a railway
] station in Paris, according to the French interior
] ministry.
]
] Two vials of the potentially deadly substance were found
] inside a locker at the Gare de Lyon, according to
] ministry officials.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Ricin found in Paris

quoted:
===

CUYAHOGA FALLS -- A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy.

Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat.

"On Sunday, we were awarded as the best firefighting unit in the Army National Guard in the entire country," said Prime. "That was a big moment for us."

Prime took his name from the leader of the Autobots Transformers, which were popular toys and a children's cartoon in the 1980s.

He legally changed his name on his 30th birthday and now it's on everything from his driver's licence, to his military ID, to his uniform.

National Guardsman changes his name to a 'Optimus Prime'

] This war is a test of the concepts behind the theory of
] "effects-based warfare".
]
] This is the new "in-phrase" in military circles - the
] idea that you can achieve military goals by carefully
] selecting critical groups of targets whose destruction
] could effectively collapse the regime and disorientate
] its armed forces, thus avoiding the need to defeat the
] Iraqi military unit by unit.
]
] This is uncharted territory.
]
] The US planners are putting great store in their capacity
] for swift movement and the ability of their air power to
] deliver whatever the commanders on the ground need.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Comment: New US theory of war

] A DC-3 aircraft on a flight out of Cuba was hijacked
] Wednesday evening with 35 people aboard but landed safely
] in Key West, Fla., under military escort.

] THE AIR TRAFFIC Center in Miami observed an unknown
] aircraft headed northbound toward the United States at
] 7:45 p.m. ET, according to Kathleen Bergen, a public
] information officer with the Federal Aviation
] Administration.

DC-3 hijacked from Cuba

Backup Link: (Use if CNN.com is slammed)
http://robots.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/war.tracker/index.html

The "War Tracker" has CNN's current news on the battles, air strikes, etc. Not too much information there right now.

CNN.com | War Tracker

Multi-layered interactive map of Iraq from the BBC, showing locations of UK forces, Iraqi bases, oilfields, weapons sites, Presidential sites, dissident areas, Iraq missile range, a map of Baghdad, and a ton of other info.

BBC: Maps of Attack Strategies