] You can add the Iraq Satellite Channel to your
] 500-channel universe with a little tinkering.

The Saddam Show - How to watch Iraqi TV on the Web.

] While flipping through the channels last Saturday night
] trying to pick up news on the war, I came across a show
] that was teaching kids about the conflict. It looks like
] the show (or segment) is called Kodomo Nyusu (Kid's
] News). They were using toy props and cartoons to show a
] trio of very glum-looking kids what was happening in
] Iraq. It was too bizzare to pass up, so I grabbed my
] camera and started snapping photos.

Teaching Japanese Children about the Iraq War

I thought this was interesting and asked Cogg to meme it. It doesn't apply to me, but those of you with family in the Gulf might want to read it. I'm rerecommending it because Cogg doesn't "meme" often so it won't show up in most of your agents from him.

This link contains all pertinent information regarding the Service Star Banner, aka The Blue Star Banner. There is one star on each banner for every immediate family member serving in the Armed Forces during a time of war. If you see a gold star instead of a blue, then a serving family member was killed or died while in a time of war. Ask your parents or grandparents about it. They'll most likely remember it.

Service Star Banner - How to recognize military service in a family

] The grenade attack that took place today in Kuwait is
] alleged to be committed by another AMERICAN SOLIDER.
] Repeat. The Grenade attack today was an example of
] Fragging--not a terrorist attack. This shows that
] RESISTANCE and REBELLION ARE ON THE RISE! Watch the
] American Free Press downplay and try to bury this
] incident. Support our Troops--but only those who Frag
] their commanding officer.

Indymedia shows its true colors.

Independent Media Center - Peace movement?

] Exchange spokesman Ray Pellechia denied the station's war
] coverage was the cause. Citing "security reasons," he
] said the exchange had chosen to limit the number of
] broadcasters working at the lower Manhattan exchange
] since the war began, giving access only to networks that
] focus "on responsible business coverage."

Backlash against Al-J for showing you what war is like.

Yahoo! News - NYSE Revokes Credentials for Al-Jazeera

] What happens in the southern Iraqi city of Basra may be a
] key indicator of success, in political and psychological
] terms anyway. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force may
] capture Basra early, in part to secure its port and oil
] wells, in part to send images of triumph to the world.
] President Bush's advisers have assured him that Iraqis
] will welcome American troops with cheers and flowers.
] Basra is where this vision has the highest chance of
] coming true.

(Its not.)

How to tell if we're winning

] I know that the only truly powerful country on the planet
] is continuing to manufacture the perilous,
] conscience-stunting myth that technology can make war
] relatively safe. Indeed, we are so delusional on this
] subject that we believe that bombing the shit out of the
] Iraqis is a humanitarian act. This is a continuation of
] the same national system of denial that we began to
] construct during Gulf War I. Ask a knowledgeable American
] how many people died in that conflict and you will
] probably be told that the death toll was somewhere around
] 150.

JPB offers a (mostly) reasonable critique

] A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to
] Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across
] the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all
] shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth
] Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church
] of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to
] reality."

Anti-War human sheilds change their minds about the war upon meeting Iraqis

] When asked to explain what is actually happening in these
] violently pretty pictures, politicians contemptously
] refuse to give "a running commentary", while press
] secretaries hide behind the sandbags of "classified"
] information. This trick of appearing open while being
] closed is also seen in the military tactic of attaching
] reporters to army units. It looks fantastically
] democratic but even the most skilled journalists risk
] becoming, in the jargon, "clientised": coming to share
] the fear, excitement and eventually triumphalism of the
] troops beside them. And if heaps of charred bodies should
] occur on either side, these "embedded" journalists will
] be kept well away from them.

Many thanks to the Guardian for being the first commercial news outlet that I am aware of to have the guts to actually say that this is all a bunch of bullshit. Hear that sucking sound? Thats the complete information vacuum surrounding this campaign. The propaganda coming from both sides is so transparent that you really can't buy into it unless you care about feeling a certain way about it and are looking for justifications.

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.

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. The bombing began. And we are supposed to beleive that this was a surpise? Their plans had changed?

Please...

Whether its "Target of Opportunity" or "Shock and Awe" (two words I am so sick of hearing that I hope they are elminiated from the language), these are obviously ways of creating "drama" for the television viewers to follow. They bare little or no relationship to what is actually going on on the ground or in the war room. We have little or no information about what is actually going on other then what is being shown on camera. All the talk is just chatter.

I don't want to see a webcam in baghdad. I want to see 24/7 satellite coverage... 2 meter resolution at least. I want raw data.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military mind games

] 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