But sometimes reporters need to handle with care critical comments for their good and for the good of their subjects. On Friday, after an explosion in a market reportedly killed dozens of people, television networks showed angry crowds chanting prayers and slogans bcking the government, which blamed the deaths on coalition bombs.
Ms. Nakhoul said she interviewed grief-stricken women. The women complained not only about the Americans, but also about the Iraqis, for placing antiaircraft batteries in their neighborhood.

So I guess I asked: "And where is Joe now? Where is Tommy?"

My parents probably answered that they were gone, back home long before I was born. Joe and Tommy didn't come to conquer like Fritz did, you know, hence they went back to their own countries. That's why, since I wasn't born when Joe and Tommy shed their blood to make sure I would come to life free in a free land, I learned about them by my father and mother, many years later.

And that's why I couldn't thank Joe and Tommy, like I wanted.

I know that today, there are fathers and mothers in Kosovo telling their kids about Joe and Tommy. I know there will be others tomorrow in Iraq.

In the second, a retired Ambassador lays out three scenarios for Baghdad, all of them ugly. The most likely in our judgement: Hussein survives and US withdraws.

Buying the tribes from Saddam
"The most important duty of a tribal chief is knowing when to switch sides," one British official with knowledge of the undercover operation told United Press International. "In Najaf, the al-Jaburi tribe understood that Saddam Hussein's time was over. "

Ironically, Saddam helped this process. Although his Baathist party in the 1960s and 1970s tried to crush the tribes as alternative power bases, he has more recently worked to win them over by restoring judicial authority to the sheiks and channeling money for public works through them. And despite repeated attempts at land reform, more than half of Iraqi land is "owned" by tribes rather than by individuals.

And even as U.S. forces were positioned around Baghdad, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf dismissed reports of coalition troops closing in on the capital as "silly."
"They are nowhere near Baghdad," al Sahaf told a news conference in the capital today. "Their allegations are a cover-up for their failure."

9. Biggest long-run victory of coalition forces to date: the lightning seizure of southern oil fields before Saddam had a chance to ignite them. This underappreciated tactical triumph will speed Iraq's postwar reconstruction by at least a year.

Could this war have been prevented? Yes, say some [inspectors]. But with a surprising argument: Germany, France and Russia made war unavoidable with their purported peace politics. Gerhard Schroeder's categorical 'no' to military deployment was simply "crazy." "We might have been able to fulfill our mandate," one hears in the hotel lobby.

Twelve years ago, the Iraqis were able to elude most of the bombs. According to prisoners of war and defectors, this is not the case in 2003. Republican Guard divisions find their casualties climbing and morale dropping. The coalition is keeping over a hundred bombers in the air 24/7, ready to drop smart bombs on enemy troops in contact with U.S. troops or seen moving from the air. Although the Republican Guard have dug their trenches in orchids, villages and anywhere there is cover, they are still spotted and promptly bombed. Most civilians have fled, warned by weeks of coalition radio broadcasts and leaflet drops to leave if they see Iraqi troops or equipment near them.

In central and western Iraq, U.S. Special Forces have made contact with tribal leaders and won some of them over to the anti-Saddam cause. About a quarter of the Iraqi population has a strong tribal connection, and many of these have guns, legal or illegal. Iraqi tribesmen have been fighting with U.S. troops moving up from the south as well as Special Forces operating in the west.

Notably, the Pentagon scrapped the Time Phased Force Deployment Data, or "TipFid," by which regional commanders would identify forces needed for a specific campaign, and the individual armed services would manage their deployments by order of priority. The result has meant that even as Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks was launching the war, forces identified for the fight continued to pour off ships in the Kuwaiti port of Doha, and not necessarily in the order of first priority.

"A lot of people around here can get very emotional talking about the lack of a TipFid for this operation," said a knowledgeable source at V Corps headquarters. "It would also be awfully nice to have another division to secure the supply routes and cities between An Nasiriya in the south and Baghdad, because we assume a lot of risk [by] leaving that much territory largely unguarded."

Hola Mother,

How are you doing? Good I hope. I'm doing OK I guess. I won't be able to write anymore starting the 28th of this month. We are moving out. We are already packed and ready to move to a tactical Alpha-Alpha (in Iraq). Once that happens, there will not be any mail sent out. We will only receive mail that is less than 12 ounces. At least that's what they said. I'm not sure where exactly we're going be at yet, but it is said to be a 20-hour drive in the Bradleys.

So I guess the time has finally come for us to see what we are made of, who will crack when the stress level rises and who will be calm all the way through it. Only time will tell. We are at the peak of our training and it's time to put it to the test.

I just want to tell everybody how much you all mean to me and how much I love you all. Mother, I love you so much! I'm not going to give up! I'm living my life one day at a time, sitting here picturing home with a small tear in my eyes, spending time with my brothers who will hold my life in their hands.

I try not to think of what may happen in the future, but I can't stand seeing it in my eyes. There's going to be murders, funerals and tears rolling down everybody's eyes. But the only thing I can say is, keep my head up and try to keep the faith and pray for better days. All this will pass. I believe God has a path for me. Whether I make it or not, it's all part of the plan. It can't be changed, only completed.

Mother will be the last word I'll say. Your face will be the last picture that goes through my eyes. I'm not trying to scare you, but it's reality. The time is here to see the plan laid out. And hopefully, I'll be at home in it. I don't know what I'm talking about or why I'm writing it down. Maybe I just want someone to know what goes through my head. It's probably good not keeping it all inside.

I just hope that you're proud of what I'm doing and have faith in my decisions. I will try hard and not give up. I just want to say sorry for anything I have ever done wrong. And I'm doing it all for you mom. I love you.

P.S. Very Important Document.

Your son,
Diego Rincon

In Basra, British Royal Marine Commandos and army armored units continue to hunt down and destroy the irregular units that are terrorizing the city. Many of the marine combat patrols are at night, which terrorizes the Iraqi fighters, who lack night vision equipment or training in night combat. The British are skillful night fighters and reports from Iraqi deserters and civilians fleeing the city indicate that the irregular units are getting discouraged and falling apart. Even some of the Saddam loyalists are fleeing the city. The British use their superior reconnaissance capabilities to find where the irregulars are establishing their bases (to feed, rearm and treat wounded fighters) and quickly attack them. The British have also cleared out the irregular units operating in the suburbs of the city. Iraqi prisoners report that the Saddam loyalists are going from door to door forcibly recruiting military age men to fight ("join us or die.") These men are deserting at the first opportunity, even though the Saddam loyalists sometimes go and kill families of deserters. But the Saddam loyalists are too busy with the British, so the desertions increase.

Arab translators working for the coalition (Iraqi-Americans and Iraqi exiles recruited and trained for this, plus some Kuwaitis) report that most Iraqi civilians are so terrorized by Saddam's police and thugs, and memories of the failed rebellion of 1991, that they still fear that Saddam will win this war and return with revenge in mind. However, some neighborhoods in Basra and Umm Qasr are starting to shed the fear and accept the fact that Saddam and his crew are gone for good. British troops are using clever tactics to facilitate this. For example, after capture Baath party headquarters are searched and all weapons and documents removed, the British let local civilians loot the place. This lets the civilians see for themselves how well the Baath party members were living while most Iraqi civilians sank deeper into poverty.

Battlefield Europe
Here's one way to describe the relationship: Together, Germany and France can afford a fancy sports car. Germany spends all its time polishing it and tinkering under its hood. It is a poky driver, never going more than 40 miles an hour -- even on the autobahn. This drives France crazy. Why have a sports car if you can't lay rubber, the French wonder. Why get the car if you aren't going to go out drag-racing against Uncle Sam?

"But we decided it was either die from an American bomb or be killed by our own people," he said. "It was better to run and take our chances."

The official reason given was that it was thought more prudent to drop them by parachute because this would put more combat ready troops on the ground more quickly in case there was any opposition. It would also allow all the participants to add the "combat jump" star to their paratrooper wings.

And although the Iraqi Information Ministry has been denying for days that Iraqi soldiers are dressing as civilians, almost all the soldiers we have encountered so far have been wearing civilian clothes, rather than military uniforms.
When captured, it is not hard to spot the soldiers -- they are invariably young, and too well-groomed for the peasant farmers they are trying to hide among.
Some have military identification cards, others have their uniforms hidden away, and a few have suspiciously large sums of money -- certainly far more money than would be carried by peasant farmers here in what is a very primitive economy.

In areas around Nasiriya, civilians told CNN they had been terrorized for years by Baath Party operatives.

One Iraqi, who goes by the name Hayat, said through an interpreter that Baath Party "thugs" shot him three times and left him for dead when he refused to fight in the Persian Gulf War. He said he has been trying to eke out a living between subsistence farming and odd jobs since to support his wife and three children.

Baath Party members come by all neighborhoods in Nasiriya on a regular basis to extort money and test loyalty, Hayat said. If neither is forthcoming, he said, "You will be shot."

Marine officers said they hope to expedite the Iraqi regime's collapse by reaching civilians such as Hayat through humanitarian programs and displays of goodwill. U.S. forces also are trying to enlist tribal leaders to join the U.S.-led coalition and help keep Saddam's forces at bay.

"If we can pass the word at Nasiriya and the tribal leaders pick up on it, we are halfway home," one Marine said.