"LAHORE, March 24 (Online): The next target of US after capturing Iraq will be replacement of religious government in Iran with a secular government as the US forces in Afghanistan have already started implementation on action plan in this regard."

Iran to be US next target: CIA Report - PakTribune

John Dolan's excellent reporting on a recent No Rules fighting match in Moscow... DAMN IT, I can't believe I missed this!

eXile #162 - Nostalgia for the Blood Mop - by John Dolan

]Norway, a loyal, inoffensive NATO ally, felt the wrath of the mad
]president. On May 20, 2004, Oslo and Bergen, the two largest
]cities in Norway, were completely annihilated by US nuclear
]weapons.

]No one yet knows how the deranged leader or his henchmen reached
]the terrible decision. Bush, now in custody, has said only
]that "those fjords were suspicious."

]The Norwegian genocide gave the anti-US coalition new resolve. UN
]forces took the war to North America, overcoming the Yankees in a
]cruel two-year war which is only now reaching an end.

The eXile looks back at the conquering of America.

eXile #162 - Feature Story - The Road to Perdition: America 2000 - 2005

(From: http://www.kevinsites.net .. No permalink for entry)

] Title: Pausing the warblog, for now.
]
] Dear readers:
]
] I've been asked to suspend my war blogging for awhile.
]
] But I don't want let you down -- I'm chronicling the events
] of my war experiences, the same as I always have, and hope
] to come to agreement with CNN in the near future to make
] them available to you in some shape or form, perhaps on
] this site.
]
] In the meantime, thanks for participating in this remarkable
] forum. It's been a remarkable experience to be your witness
] here.
]
] -- Kevin Sites.

This SUCKS. I had great expectations for this blog..

[U: I just sent a scathing email full of vitriol to CNN@cnn.com. ]

CNN Shuts Kevin Sites Down?!?

] These include a powerful propaganda machine — America’s
] is the most comprehensive and sophisticated in history —
] centered around a few simple, powerful symbols which,
] though in themselves meaningless, are nonetheless, in
] old-fashioned parlance, taboo. It remains an offense to
] “desecrate” the flag.
]
] They also include a public rhetoric so far removed from
] ordinary speech as to constitute practically a separate
] language and whose intended effect is essentially to
] baffle...

Do you watch cspan?

ArabNews: Neo-Totalitarianism

Teh good.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Military mind games

] The bombing of Iraq was intensified after American
] officials revealed that their special forces had been
] holding face-to-face negotiations with Republican Guard
] leaders. The awesome display of firepower was designed as
] much to increase the pressure on them to surrender as to
] destroy targets crucial to Saddam.
. . .
] Mr Rumsfeld had earlier given clues about the extent
] of the unseen war being waged for the loyalty of Iraqi
] generals. "There are communications in every conceivable
] mode and method, public and private, to the Iraqi forces,
] that they can act with honour and turn over their weapons
] and walk away from them, and they will not be hurt," he said.

I fully agree with this. We don't *have* to fight. It's not about killing people and destroying cities. It's about changing the Iraqi leadership. So the quicker we can get through this, with the fewest possible casualties (on *both* sides), the better.

Times Online: The Other Unseen Part of the War

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the new war received little attention, although it was reported in the opening hours. The US military seems to have taken over the main Iraqi state radio frequency as the first strikes happened. “This is the day we have been waiting for,” an announcer said in Arabic.

The 21st-century US military clearly has a sophisticated ability to manipulate the media. This is information warfare and “reflexive control” — influencing the enemy’s thoughts to make him do what you want.

ArabNews: The Strategy Was Rewritten

Delicate threads of spider's silk are about to solve a major problem in photonics: how to make hollow optical fibres narrow enough to carry light beams around the fastest nanoscale optical circuits.

To make the fibres, Yushan Yan and a team of engineers from the University of California at Riverside give the silk thread a glassy coating, and then extract the silk by baking. They soon expect to be able to make hollow fibres with cores just two nanometres wide - or 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

New Scientist | New Technology

] This weekend 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel
] Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried
] to prevent the Israeli army destroying homes in the Gaza
] Strip. In a remarkable series of emails to her family,
] she explained why she was risking her life.

Prepare to be angry and sad.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Rachel's war