] NEAR KARBALA, Iraq, March 31 -- As an unidentified
] four-wheel-drive vehicle came barreling toward an
] intersection held by troops of the Army's 3rd Infantry
] Division, Capt. Ronny Johnson grew increasingly alarmed.
] From his position at the intersection, he was heard
] radioing to one of his forward platoons of M2 Bradley
] Fighting Vehicles to alert it to what he described as a
] potential threat.
]
] "Fire a warning shot," he ordered as the vehicle kept
] coming. Then, with increasing urgency, he told the
] platoon to shoot a 7.62mm machine-gun round into its
] radiator. "Stop [messing] around!" Johnson yelled into
] the company radio network when he still saw no action
] being taken. Finally, he shouted at the top of his voice,
] "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"
]
] That order was immediately followed by the loud reports
] of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of the platoon's
] Bradleys. About half a dozen shots were heard in all.
]
] "Cease fire!" Johnson yelled over the radio. Then, as he
] peered into his binoculars from the intersection on
] Highway 9, he roared at the platoon leader, "You just
] [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a
] warning shot soon enough!"

A Gruesome Scene on Highway 9 (washingtonpost.com)

] 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'

] THE light was a strange yellowy grey and the wind was
] coming up, the beginnings of a sandstorm. The silence
] felt almost eerie after a night of shooting so intense
] it hurt the eardrums and shattered the nerves. My
] footsteps felt heavy on the hot, dusty asphalt as I
] walked slowly towards the bridge at Nasiriya. A
] horrific scene lay ahead.

US Marines turn fire on civilians at the bridge of death

Various statistics from the war.

IRAQ-O-METER

] For three straight days in recent weeks, something
] remarkable happened to the oil pipeline running through
] northeast China to North Korea - the oil stopped flowing,
] according to diplomatic sources, temporarily cutting off
] a vital lifeline for North Korea.
]
] The pipeline shutdown, officially ascribed to a technical
] problem, followed an unusually blunt message delivered by
] China to its longtime ally in a high-level meeting in
] Beijing last month, the sources said. Stop your
] provocations about the possible development of nuclear
] weapons, China warned its neighbor, or face Chinese
] support for economic sanctions against the regime.
]
] Such tough tactics show an unexpected resolve in
] Beijing's policy toward Pyongyang, and hint at the
] nervousness of Chinese leaders about North Korea's
] nuclear ambitions and North Korea's tensions with the
] United States.

From Beijing, stern words for an uneasy ally

] A word of advice to future Oscar winners: Don't begin
] Oscar day by going to church.
]
] That is where I found myself this past Sunday morning, at
] the Church of the Good Shepherd on Santa Monica
] Boulevard, at Mass with my sister and my dad. My problem
] with the Catholic Mass is that sometimes I find my mind
] wandering after I hear something the priest says, and I
] start thinking all these crazy thoughts like how it is
] wrong to kill people and that you are not allowed to use
] violence upon another human being unless it is in true
] self-defense.
]
] The pope even came right out and said it: This war in
] Iraq is not a just war and, thus, it is a sin.
]
] Those thoughts were with me the rest of the day, from the
] moment I left the church and passed by the homeless
] begging for change (one in six American children living
] in poverty is another form of violence), to the streets
] around the Kodak Theater where antiwar protesters were
] being arrested as I drove by in my studio-sponsored limo.

Michael Moore's website oped on his comments at the Oscars..

I'd Like to Thank the Vatican...

NSN: 1440-01-500-8595AO
P/N: 704AS10896
NOUN: Launcher, Aircraft Guided Missile
CAGE: 30003
APPLICABLE: LAU-118 Launcher used on the F-16 Aircraft

Tim Blair - Bomb in Baghdad Market Kills 50

] A shuddering sense of outrage at President Bush and the
] United States fell over the Arab world today as
] television networks and newspapers reported a U.S. air
] assault that Iraqi officials said killed 58 people at a
] vegetable market in Baghdad.
]
] "Monstrous martyrdom in Baghdad," said a huge headline in
] al-Dustur, a newspaper in Amman, Jordan.
]
] "Dreadful massacre in Baghdad," read a banner headline in
] Egypt's mass circulation Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper. Photos
] of two young victims of the blast covered half its front
] page.
]
] "Yet another massacre by the coalition of invaders," read
] the main headline in Saudi Arabia's popular al-Riyadh
] daily.
]
] "Mr. Bush has lost us. We are gone. Enough. That's the
] end," said Diaa Rashwan, head of the comparative politics
] unit at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic
] Studies in Cairo. "If America starts winning tomorrow,
] there will be suicide bombing that will start in America
] the next day. It is a whole new level now."

Also see, http://timblair.blogspot.com/2003_03_30_timblair_archive.html#91637531

Look like attack was a stray bomb. HARM anti radiation missile.

Its worth making note that I remember seeing an article somewhere saying that it was believed that Iraq might have equipment to attract these anti-radiation missiles. Can't find a link for it though.

Outrage Spreads in Arab World (washingtonpost.com)

The Veteran's Administration, plagued by recent budget cuts, has had to resort to charging new veterans entering into its system a yearly fee of $250 in order for them to receive treatment. It is a sad irony that the very people being sent to fight the war are going to have to pay to treat the effects of it.

Support the Warrior Not the War: Give Them Their Benefits!

] NEW YORK - With a war on, Iraq is surprisingly still in
] position to deliver oil, and while the United Nations may
] be in no position to deliver food, the U.N. Security
] Council is at least near an agreement that would permit
] U.N. agencies to do so as part of the oil-for-food
] program.
]
]
] The agreement will allow delivery of $10 billion in food
] and other humanitarian aid to Iraq, diplomats say. These
] shipments would be financed by Iraqi oil that is already
] out of the ground and stored at the Turkish Mediterranean
] port of Ceyhan, the end of a pipeline from Iraq's
] northern Kirkuk fields.
]
]
] The resolution could be voted on as early as today and is
] being hailed as a resumption of a consensus about Iraq
] policy after the acrimonious debates failed to lead to an
] agreement before the war.

U.N. Will Allow Iraq Oil To Flow