Monthly Archives : April 2003

Abbas’s burden of proof


There was a distinct feeling of deja vu from 1994 in the air this week. Back   then, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak saved the international community from   embarrassment by physically forcing Yasser Arafat to sign the Gaza-Jericho   agreement on live television.     This week, Mubarak sent the commander of his intelligence service to repeat the performance. General…

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America’s gift for Pessah


After three weeks of intense fighting, the American military offensive   against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq more or less ended last Saturday.     The military operation can be compared to smashing down pieces on a chess   board by a violent hand and rearranging them according to a new guiding   logic. The manner in which the pieces…

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The rewards of vigilance


BAGHDAD – At first glance, the smiling faces of the Iraqi throngs who mobbed   the streets of Baghdad throughout Wednesday were cause for unadulterated   jubilation.   US and British forces, after 12 years, have finally arrived to liberate them   from the terror regime of Saddam Hussein.   The smiles on the faces of the pillaging mobs making…

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‘Go Bush, yes America,’ Iraqis cheer


BAGHDAD – A smiling burka-clad Shi'ite woman gave a big thumbs-up to the US   forces she passed as she walked along the road in southern Baghdad, dragging   a bathtub she had just looted.   'Go Bush! Yes America!' she called out.   Thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians took to the streets of Baghdad   yesterday, smiling and…

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Baghdad battle pits US against Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians


HIGHWAY 8, SOUTH BAGHDAD – At nightfall Monday US forces had taken over   footholds in large swaths of Baghdad. The 3rd Infantry Division's Second Brigade was located at the center of the   city. The 3rd Brigade was located in northwest Baghdad and the Marines were   located in the city's northeast. The 1st brigade was still securing the…

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US forces tighten grip on Baghdad


SADDAM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – US forces continued Sunday to destroy Iraqi   Republican Guard Units in and around Baghdad in their bid to overthrow   Saddam Hussein's regime. By the afternoon, 3rd Infantry Division and Marine   Corps units had enveloped some 90 percent of Baghdad.   The 3rd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade destroyed a Republican Guard tank   battalion…

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Holding the airport


BAGHDAD AIRPORT – A call came over the radio at 2:30 p.m. Saturday: Two   truckloads of Iraqi civilians, displaced when the US Army took over the   Saddam Hussein International Airport in Baghdad late Thursday night, would   be moving through the lines escorted on either side by Army vehicles. The call was a warning not to shoot; the…

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How US forces captured Saddam International Airport


BAGHDAD AIRPORT – 'We are on an offensive-oriented mission. Our job is to   destroy the enemy. We defend the airfield by destroying the enemy around   us,' explained Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, commander of the 2-7 Mechanized   Infantry Battalion, at a command briefing to his officers Saturday   afternoon.   The 2-7 Battalion, together with the 3-69 Battalion…

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Combat Diary


I just finished my first 'Ranger pudding.' Sitting in the back of the   Bradley fighting vehicle, I followed the recipe instructions I received a   few days ago from one of the guys in the battalion: 'You take the cocoa   powder pouch in the MREs [combat rations], add a pouch of instant coffee,   fill the cocoa pouch…

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‘We’re going to destroy these bastards’


About 30 minutes after a suicide bomber killed four soldiers from the 2-7 Mechanized Infantry Battalion, Operations Officer Maj. Rod Coffey stood before the maps lying on the table of the battalion operation tent absentmindedly but violently smashing his plastic water bottle on the table.   Coffey managed the front-rear coordination of the operation to secure the checkpoint on Highway…

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