SHOCKED INTO REALITY II



The money quote (pardon the pun) from a conversation with an Iraqi taxi driver:

Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?"

The writer, Daniel Pepper, is 23 years old. Welcome to adulthood, Daniel. You can check out the entire story at the The Daily Telegraph.

US SOLDIER A SUSPECT IN ATTACK



From the AP:

KUWAIT CITY - Troops in a tent at the 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait were attacked early Sunday with grenades, and 13 soldiers were wounded, six seriously, military officials said. An American soldier was detained as a suspect, the Army said.

MEMBERS OF THE 101ST INJURED IN TERRORIST GRENADE ATTACK



CNN is reporting on this now. It seems as if someone threw a couple of grenades into an encampment of the 101st Airborne. At least 10 injured.



UPDATE: The grenades were thrown into "leadership" tents.



UPDATE: From the AP:

KUWAIT CITY - A rear base camp of the 101st Airborne Division was attacked early Sunday with a grenade and small arms fire and there appear to be casualties, a U.S. military official said.



The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident occurred at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait near the Iraqi border.



The official did not identify the unit of the 101st that was in the camp but added that it had been in Kuwait for about one week.



Most of the division has entered southern Iraq.

LEFTISTs, STALINISTs, COMMUNISTS, SAN FRANCISCANS, FRENCH, GERMANS, FRET OVER AMERICAN SUCCESS



Wesley Pruden hits the nail on the head in his recent Washington Times column:

The old lefties can't wait for the photographs and television footage of burned women and mutilated children, to see their country humiliated and their president branded a war criminal. But deep down they understand that time and circumstance are not likely to be kind to them this time. George W. is running a compassionately conservative war, going after Saddam and his evil cohort first and trying to shock and awe frightened Iraqi generals and their troops into going AWOL before the liberating army breaks up all the furniture. Demonstrators against the Vietnam War used to speculate on what would happen "if they gave a war and nobody came." Since it takes two to fight, there are early indications that this may be that war. This is the prospect that frightens George W.'s critics most of all.

Read it all here.

SHOCKED BACK TO REALITY



From the UPI newswire:

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." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

I hope Pastor Joseph will soon produce a documentary of his experience. This is a shocking reminder of the totalitarian regime which is supported by the marches of the peacenik Saddamites in San Francisco, New York, etc.

"YOU'RE LATE. WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? GOD HELP YOU BECOME VICTORIOUS"



A headline from The Guardian in London, quoting a liberated Iraqi by the name of Ajami Saadoun Khlis:

Afraid that the US and Britain will abandon them, the people of Safwan did not touch the portraits and murals of Saddam Hussein hanging everywhere. It was left to the marines to tear them down. It did not mean there was not heartfelt gladness at the marines' arrival. Ajami Saadoun Khlis, whose son and brother were executed under the Saddam regime, sobbed like a child on the shoulder of the Guardian's Egyptian translator. He mopped the tears but they kept coming.



"You just arrived," he said. "You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."



"For a long time we've been saying: 'Let them come'," his wife, Zahara, said. "Last night we were afraid, but we said: 'Never mind, as long as they get rid of him, as long as they overthrow him, no problem'." Their 29-year-old son was executed in July 2001, accused of harbouring warm feelings for Iran.

MAN BEATS SADDAM'S FACE WITH SHOE



I love this liberation picture of a man slapping Saddam in the face with his shoe (image from Reuters).

TWO GREAT LIES EXPOSED IN LAST 24 HOURS



(1) Iraq has no Scuds.



(2) Patriot missiles don't work.

ONE HOUR TO GO...



...Certain special forces are already inside Iraq, paving the way for the coming attack. Reports are that 17 Iraqi soldiers have already surrendered in advance of hostilities.

FOX NEWS ONE-OF-A-KIND



Kudos to Fox News for finally catching up with blogdom. This is the only network news story I've seen on the anti-American groups which organize, fund, and participate in so-called "peace rallies" in the United States.

TO THE POINT



The President's speech was right on the mark. You can see it here.

RUMMY IS THE MAN



Mark Steyn on the forthcoming re-emergence of Donald Rumsfeld, the Administration's truth-teller in a world of diplomatic Orwellianism:

That is Rumsfeld's function - to take the polite fictions and drag them back to the real world. During the Afghan campaign, CNN's Larry King asked him, "Is it very important that the coalition hold?" The correct answer - the Powell-Blair-Gore-Annan answer - is, of course, "Yes". But Rummy decided to give the truthful answer: "No". He went on to explain why: "The worst thing you can do is allow a coalition to determine what your mission is." Such a man cannot be happy at the sight of the Guinean tail wagging the French rectum of the British hindquarters of the American dog.

Read the whole thing.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END



I predict that war will come this week (finally).