]On Tuesday, the leaders of the antiwar coalition Win
] Without War will gather for a two-day retreat outside New
] York City to discuss their group's future now that the
] war has ended. One of the items on the agenda: Should it
] change its name to Win Without Wars?
]
] The question of whether to go plural reflects how the
] antiwar movement is trying to move forward now that the
] conflict it so passionately wanted to avert %u2014 and
] for a time, thought it might avert %u2014 has ended.
]
] Leaders in the movement do not like to focus on the
] notion that they lost. Yes, they failed to stop the war.
] Yes, the public has overwhelmingly supported President
] Bush's actions. With a swift United States victory over a
] brutal dictator and fewer casualties than most experts
] predicted, it is particularly hard for antiwar organizers
] to argue that their dire forecasts were right.
]
] They focus instead on how much strength the movement
] gained so quickly %u2014 it was largely invisible just
] six months ago %u2014 and on their next moves, even if
] they are not quite certain what those might be.

Antiwar Movement Tries to Find a Meaningful Message

] Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday rejected
] charges that the US military was to blame for the looting
] by Iraqis of priceless treasures from the antiquities
] museum in Baghdad.
]
] Rumsfeld expressed sympathy over the plunder of the Iraqi
] National Museum last week, when US troops stood by as
] looters walked off with antiquities or smashed what they
] could not steal.
]
] But he denied at a Pentagon briefing that the war plan
] for Iraq had not adequately prepared for such a threat.
]
] "Looting is an unfortunate thing. Human beings are not
] perfect," Rumsfeld said. "No one likes it. No one allows
] it."
]
] But he added: "To the extent it happens in a war zone,
] it's difficult to stop."

Rumsfeld rejects blame over looting

] The British Museum will help in the global search for
] priceless artefacts plundered in the chaos of war
]
] THE British Museum, accused in the past of being one of
] the world%u2019s leading looters of imperial treasures,
] is to come to the aid of a sister institution devastated
] by war.
]
] Downing Street has asked a leading academic from
] Britain%u2019s national archaeological collection in
] Bloomsbury to draw up a list of antiquities that may have
] been looted from the Baghdad museum so that details can
] be distributed to soldiers patrolling the borders of
] Iraq.
]
] Iraq%u2019s priceless national collection traced the
] origins of modern civilisation in ancient Mesopotamia
] %u2014 the birthplace of writing, cities, codified law,
] mathematics, medicine and astronomy. Its virtual
] destruction in little more than a day of lawlessness is
] seen as a disaster comparable to the 5th-century
] destruction of the library at Alexandria, or an earlier
] sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.

No stone unturned in hunt for looted treasures

] The United States has pledged to recover and repair the
] priceless antiquities looted from Iraq's national museum
] in the wake of the entry of US troops.
]
] Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Baghdad museum
] was "one of the great museums in the world" and that the
] US would take a leading role in restoring it.
]
] Coalition forces were criticised for not protecting the
] institution, which housed many treasures from "the cradle
] of civilisation", when it was ransacked on Friday.
]
] The world's foremost experts on Iraqi heritage will
] gather for an emergency meeting on Thursday to count the
] cost of the looting of the country's cultural sites.

US 'will repair' Iraqi heritage

] In essence, that's the question being debated by
] journalists and commentators after six days of "grunt-eye
] view" footage shot from rumbling tanks and speeding
] Humvees.
]
] Are the "embeds," as the reporters assigned to military
] units are known in current parlance, too cozy with the
] U.S. military forces they're in Iraq to cover?
]
] Unfortunately I couldn't find the transcript of the
] interview I heard with the New York Times' Chris Hedges
] on NPR on Saturday (I understand that NPR is behind in
] its transcriptions), because the veteran foreign
] correspondent -- Central America, Bosnia and the West
] Bank -- spoke eloquently about why he would only be able
] to do his work as a "unilateral" or
] free-to-move-about-as-you-please reporter. "Embed" did
] not compute for Chris Hedges, who recently published War
] Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.

SF Gate: War On Iraq: War Blog:

] SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 -- The antiwar rally here
] Saturday began much the same way as a half-dozen others
] before it, with thousands of placard-carrying protesters
] marching through the streets. But this one was also
] noticeably different.
]
] Among the crowd of a few thousand, there were clear signs
] that war protesters are embarking on a new phase. Many
] more of the protesters' placards took aim directly at
] President Bush: "Bush Must Go!" "Impeach Bush!" Voter
] registration tables urging protesters to "Vote for
] change!" also dotted the city park that served as the
] rallying point.

Antiwar Groups Shifting Their Focus to Bush

] It was the day of the looter. They trashed the German
] Embassy and threw the ambassador's desk into the yard. I
] rescued the European Union flag - flung into a puddle of
] water outside the visa section - as a mob of middle-aged
] men, chadored women and screaming children rifled through
] the consul's office and hurled Mozart records and German
] history books from a window.
]
] The Slovakian Embassy was broken into a few hours later.

US blind to looters' fury

] Nabhal Amin, deputy director at the Iraqi National
] Museum, blamed the destruction on the United States for
] not taking control of the situation on the streets.
]
] On Saturday, Unesco - the UN's cultural agency - has
] urged the US and Britain to deploy troops at Iraq's key
] archaeological sites and museums to stop widespread
] looting and destruction.
]
] Armed men have been roaming the streets of Baghdad since
] the city was taken by US troops on Wednesday.
]
] Shops, government offices, presidential palaces and even
] hospitals have all been looted.

Looters ransack Baghdad museum

] 1253: Private Jessica Lynch, the American prisoner-of-war
] rescued from an Iraqi hospital, is on her way back to the
] US from Germany with other injured personnel, a military
] spokesman says.
]
] 1140: A rewards programme is being established to
] encourage Iraqis to give information to coalition forces
] to help them to capture key leaders of Saddam Hussein's
] regime, says US Brigadier-General Vincent Brooks. He said
] the amounts offered would be "appropriate".

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq latest: At-a-glance

] CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., April 10 (UPI) -- Wives of Camp
] Pendleton Marines involved in the war in Iraq have been
] receiving crank calls from individuals claiming to work
] for the Red Cross who regretfully, and falsely, inform
] them that their spouses had been killed in action.
]
] In a statement, Camp Pendleton reminded military families
] that genuine casualty notifications are not made by
] telephone or by the Red Cross.
]
] "Individuals falsely identifying themselves as Red Cross
] representatives have made prank calls to Camp Pendleton
] spouses claiming that their loved ones overseas have been
] killed," the Marine Corps said in a brief statement. "The
] Marine Corps does not utilize the Red Cross for casualty
] notification. Marine Corps and Navy representatives
] conduct all casualty notifications in person for Camp
] Pendleton."
]
] Camp Pendleton is the home base of the 1st Marine
] Division, which battled its way into Baghdad and
] continues to engage Iraqi resisters.
]
] "I honestly can't even fathom someone with that
] mentality," a Marine wife named "Julia" told The San
] Diego Union-Tribune Thursday. "I can't even go there in
] my mind."
]
] "I would assume that a young spouse could believe that
] kind of call and her world could be shattered," she
] added.
]
] The Red Cross said last week that families of service
] members in Michigan, Delaware and Alabama had reported
] receiving similar

More G.I. wives get hoax casualty calls