] The large arms deal Syria recently made on behalf of the
] regime in Baghdad (thus provoking rage in Washington)
] involved the acquisition from Russia of 500 laser-guided
] anti-tank missiles and their transfer to the Iraqis.
]
]
] U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in
] Washington some five days ago that Syria was continuing
] to transfer military items to the Iraqis, referring to
] arms and military equipment deals Syrians made before the
] outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. These deals, going back
] to 2001, initially focused on East European states that
] manufacture Russian weapons systems such as tanks,
] artillery cannons, and engines for tanks and MiG fighter
] jets.

Article Static

] U.S. forces near Baghdad found a weapons cache of around
] 20 medium-range missiles equipped with potent chemical
] weapons, the U.S. news station National Public Radio
] reported on Monday.
]
] NPR, which attributed the report to a top official with
] the 1st Marine Division, said the rockets, BM-21
] missiles, were equipped with sarin and mustard gas and
] were "ready to fire." It quoted the source as saying new
] U.S. intelligence data showed the chemicals were "not
] just trace elements."

Report: U.S. Finds Missiles with Chemical Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

Superb online map collection. This particular link focuses on detailed maps of Iraq and Baghdad, but the site contains maps of many other areas as well.

This page is also maintaining links to many other online maps of the battlefields, including the interactive Flash maps provided by various news organizations. Great one-stop-shopping for maps!

UT Library Online - Perry-Castañeda Map Collection - Iraq Maps

] What started as an April Fool's joke involving bad
] grammar landed seven people in jail Tuesday.
]
] Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing
] more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses,
] schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs
] were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up
] Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
]
] The letters all read "All your base are belong to us and
] you have no chance to survive, make your time."
]
] Information about the letters was forwarded to the FBI
] and U.S. postal authorities, said Sturgis police Chief
] Eugene Alli.

Having fun (not) in Michigan . . .

'All Your Base' Signs Land Seven in Court

] BERLIN (APOnline) -- German Foreign Minister Joschka
] Fischer said Wednesday he hoped Saddam Hussein's
] government would collapse quickly, marking a stark
] turnaround from Germany's previous opposition to regime
] change as a goal of the U.S.-led war.

I anticipate that the closer we get to winning, the more countries are going to be jumping onto the bandwagon. Some because they'll just plain want to be identified with the winning side, and others because they'll be smelling the whiff of war spoils in the air, and will be wanting to try and cash in.

Germany now backs regime change in Iraq

] Maybe someone in the peace movement should figure out
] that not only Bush could stop this war. So could Saddam
] - by resigning his unelected post and saving his
] people any further sacrifice. Yet I've yet to see
] one anti-war placard allude to Saddam's
] responsibilities in securing the peace.
]
] But talk about quagmires. The peace movement, which
] promises so much in its scope and energy, itself remains
] bogged down in a minimalist program of simply and only
] opposing U.S. military action. That's hardly enough.
] The movement suffers a malady similar to that of the
] Bushies, but in reverse: smart principles but dumb -
] no, make that stupid - operational politics. Pure
] rejectionism, since the outbreak of war makes the peace
] movement as blind and indiscriminate as a WWII-vintage
] iron-cast bomb, though considerably less dangerous and
] infinitely less powerful.
]
] Blocking traffic when 74 percent of the American people
] support the war, or endlessly whining about CNN's
] coverage, or grandstanding as Michael Moore did at the
] Oscars (news - web sites) telling America that a
] president who currently enjoys (for all the sordid
] reasons we know) stratospheric popularity ratings is
] "fictitious," has much more to do with personal
] therapy than with effective politics. Continue on that
] tack and you can pretty much count on another four
] years of Bush, no matter how ugly the war turns.

Yahoo! News - Therapy or Politics? - Peace movement misses the point by marching now

Yet another anti-Bush rally that I wish I could have attended.

The protesters would disrobe, form the Chinese symbol for peace, and a photographer would climb up into a cherry picker and take their picture from above. I wasn't really sure how nudity was going to help the peace movement, but I'd never gotten naked in front of more than two people at a time, and the idea of doing it for something I believed in seemed like a great idea.

Salon.com Life | Bushes against Bush

] It was also a prime example of how private companies
] violated the embargo that the U.S. and the United Nations
] imposed on Iraq more than a decade ago.

Who Sold What to Iraq?

] 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'

] 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