] NAJAF, Iraq, April 2 - Hundreds of American troops
] marched into town at midday today and were greeted by its
] residents.
]
] The infantry was backed by attack helicopters and
] bombers, and immediately destroyed several arms caches
] and took over a military training facility to serve as
] their headquarters.
]
] The occupying forces, from the First and Second brigades
] of the 101st Airborne Division, entered from the south
] and north. They had seized the perimeter of town on
] Tuesday.
]
] People rushed to greet them today, crying out repeatedly,
] "Thank you, this is beautiful!"
]
] Two questions dominated a crowd that gathered outside a
] former ammunition center for the Baath Party. "Will you
] stay?" asked Kase, a civil engineer who would not give
] his last name. Another man, Heider, said, "Can you tell
] me what time Saddam is finished?"

Some interesting quotes in this article.

Cheers and Smiles for U.S. Troops in a Captured City

] IF THERE IS ANYTHING that can be said to be "enjoyable"
] about this war, it must surely be the delights of the
] CENTCOM 7:00 a.m. press briefings. Handled mostly by the
] able Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, they shed little
] light on the actual progress of the war, but give a clear
] look into the minds of the press.
]
] Surprisingly, the questions from the American press have
] been quite good. Reporters from U.S. news outlets
] typically ask factual questions, such as how many men are
] in the Fedayeen or where Iraqi chem suits were
] manufactured.
]
] The foreign press seem less interested in facts and more
] interested in, well, see for yourself:

Foreign Correspondents

] Maybe someone in the peace movement should figure out
] that not only Bush could stop this war. So could Saddam
] - by resigning his unelected post and saving his
] people any further sacrifice. Yet I've yet to see
] one anti-war placard allude to Saddam's
] responsibilities in securing the peace.
]
] But talk about quagmires. The peace movement, which
] promises so much in its scope and energy, itself remains
] bogged down in a minimalist program of simply and only
] opposing U.S. military action. That's hardly enough.
] The movement suffers a malady similar to that of the
] Bushies, but in reverse: smart principles but dumb -
] no, make that stupid - operational politics. Pure
] rejectionism, since the outbreak of war makes the peace
] movement as blind and indiscriminate as a WWII-vintage
] iron-cast bomb, though considerably less dangerous and
] infinitely less powerful.
]
] Blocking traffic when 74 percent of the American people
] support the war, or endlessly whining about CNN's
] coverage, or grandstanding as Michael Moore did at the
] Oscars (news - web sites) telling America that a
] president who currently enjoys (for all the sordid
] reasons we know) stratospheric popularity ratings is
] "fictitious," has much more to do with personal
] therapy than with effective politics. Continue on that
] tack and you can pretty much count on another four
] years of Bush, no matter how ugly the war turns.

Yahoo! News - Therapy or Politics? - Peace movement misses the point by marching now

] The low-fat, high-bandwidth solution to your networked
] cooking needs is finally here. The George Foreman USB
] iGrill conveniently connects to your home or office PC
] using USB 2.0 technology, and provides a sophisticated
] web-based cooking interface.

sweet.

ThinkGeek :: George Foreman USB iGrill

] The previous Meat Meat Meat! section contained, I
] believed, the finest examples of hideously glistening
] meatage I'd ever seen.
]
] I was wrong. Thanks to patron Jody, we now have this rare
] volume from the fabled Family Circle collection. Steady
] your gorge; this is going to be a rough one.

MEAT! MEAT! MEAT! part 2.
Hooray!

LILEKS (James) : Gallery of Regrettable Food : MEAT!

] Attention, all families and friends preparing to send
] "care packages" to U.S. soldiers: Not all gifts are
] created equal on the Arabian Peninsula.
]
] Powered-drink mixes, beef jerky, pretzels and chewing gum
] are fine, say the veterans at
] http://www.West-Point.org.Chocolate will melt.
] Flyswatters, footballs, lip balm, sunblock lotion, foot
] powder and other logical items will be appreciated.
]
] Do not send pork or tobacco. Do not send religious
] materials. And do not send pornography. In other words,
] send nothing that will bring grief -- or danger -- to
] soldiers in the lands surrounding Mecca.
]
] Thus, scores of religious leaders got upset when they
] heard about a DirectLink Media Group offer to send
] pornographic videotapes and DVDs to U.S. soldiers and
] veterans anywhere, with the soldiers paying shipping and
] handling charges.

Awwww.

A war of words over sending pornography to troops

Yet another anti-Bush rally that I wish I could have attended.

The protesters would disrobe, form the Chinese symbol for peace, and a photographer would climb up into a cherry picker and take their picture from above. I wasn't really sure how nudity was going to help the peace movement, but I'd never gotten naked in front of more than two people at a time, and the idea of doing it for something I believed in seemed like a great idea.

Salon.com Life | Bushes against Bush

] It was also a prime example of how private companies
] violated the embargo that the U.S. and the United Nations
] imposed on Iraq more than a decade ago.

Who Sold What to Iraq?

] Despite all their vaunted technology, and months of
] prewar planning, they've looked disorganized and
] unimpressive since the actual fighting started. They seem
] bewildered, behind the curve, and slow to respond to
] unanticipated developments, too smug about their superior
] performance in Gulf War I to take the challenges of this
] one seriously. It's beginning to look as if they've been
] sucker-punched by an old foe who's thought several moves
] ahead.
]
]
] Yes, the television networks have done a thoroughly
] unimpressive job of covering the war. And it's
] surprising. After all, cable television covered the first
] Gulf War pretty well, and now they have the benefits of
] drastically advanced communications technology, allowing
] embedded reporters to send back reports from wherever
] they are, live and almost unedited.
]
]
] And that's a lot of the problem. The "embedding" program
] has been a stroke of genius for the Pentagon, but it's
] been a disaster for the networks. The embedded
] journalists have come to identify with their units, and
] have formed a bond with American soldiers and Marines
] that will likely last a lifetime and fundamentally alter
] the character of the press in terms of its relations with
] the military. And - because they're embedded with units
] and traveling with ordinary soldiers - they're sending
] back a soldier's-eye-view of the war, which the networks
] feel they have to air because of its immediacy, and because
] they've invested so much in the technology that makes such
] reportage possible.

TCS: Tech - Losing the War on the Air

] The people I spoke with at Umm Qasr said they were happy
] about the removal of Saddam, as he had held them in
] terror for years. They took me to see the local Baath
] Party headquarters. They told me that many bad things
] happened there and that most of those picked up in the
] middle of the night and taken to that building were never
] seen again.
]
] I entered the building and walked around. I couldn't
] help noticing the excitement in the people's voices
] as they pointed out the bullet holes and the charred
] remains of where the building burned.
]
] That was when I first got the sense that these people
] were really eager to see Saddam and Baath gone.
]
] I asked several what they thought of the US/UK plan to
] remove Saddam. They told me: "Now that they have
] started to remove him, they cannot stop. If they do, then
] we are all as good as dead. He still has informants in
] Umm Qasr and he knows who is against him and who
] isn't."

ArabNews: Exclusive: 'If They Stop Now We're As Good As Dead'