It has Begun
 

The President is going to speak shortly. The war has officially begun.

And the liberation of the Iraqi people starts now.

OORAH! :usa:

Shocked it started so soon. I was going to guess in about a week.

EDIT: I can't leave our friends out.

:uk: :aust:

"It has begun"

I said the same a thing just a moment ago. cnn.com is too busy

I like how they all are showing live footage of Baghdad, like they will see some more coming in.

Well uhhh...lets hope it's quick.

I think the main attack won't start for a while. What I'm hearing is that this strike was one of opportunity, tryong to get Saddam or his kids while they were on the move. An ad-hoc attack.

I think the main fireworks will start once the full moon passes so that the US's night vision advantage can be exploited.

Yay for blowing up Iraq! (I'm not being sarcastic...)

I wonder if the attack was "succesful". I suppose we will find out in the morning.

All that's going to be left is a smoking crater formally known as Iraq.:usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa: :usa:

:bonk:

USA V.S. Iraq

USA wins

I agree, kinda. I want to see some change there. I never hear anything good about Iraq. Plus Im hoping that some affect over there can for some reason lower gas prices over here. No way am I paying 50 dollars for gas any more.

Lets calm down there. I know this will be a bit of a buzz kill but I feel this needs to be said now.

There is a job to be done, but leveling Iraq is not part of it. Iraq has a populace that is educated enough and westernized enough to become the first ever democracy in the Middle East. The importance of that cannot be overstated for both our and Iraq's benefit.

Freeing the Iraqi people does not involve blowing them up.

oh, yeah... GO US!:usa:

BTW, I think this strategy is brilliant. It sends a message to the Iraqi people that we are not after them, but their leaders. It keeps Saddam on the run, which keeps him from running his military and possibly authorizing biological and chemical weapons or giving the go ahead to light the oil fields. Plus it surprises them, as they have been expecting a "shock and awe" campaign (which i still think is coming). Absolutely brilliant.

Right now while we rest in the comfort of our homes and countries, an Iraqui child cries in the dark, just remember, they're not all bad.

None of the Iraqis are bad... except for Saddam. Freaking AntiChrist.

And.. umm.. why haven't they just poisoned his coffee or something yet? Do they really have to blow these oilfields up? Morons.

They WILL hit oil fields. Just you watch.

they hit oil fields to make an aerial attack a little bit harder to see the ground, i bet this thing will all blow over in about a week, but if they get help from some of the other larger countries and they start to deploy back on us, starting with the major cities, then this might as well be called W.W.3, if they do this then look out canada here we come!!!! but im sure our u.s. soldiers (god bless them) will hit iraq where it hurts before they can make any large moves..

Also remember that most of that crying has been at the hands of Saddam's regime murdering their fathers and raping their mothers and from starvation because Saddam sold food and medicine shipped to them back to the outside world for profit so that he could rebuild his war machine.

It is my firm belief that the Iraqi people will benefit more from a few weeks of war, than from another 50 years of murderous oppression.

I read somewhere Saddam is Islam. Of course no Islam would want a whole country to blow up and die. =\

Come on! I'm pretty sure that all the food and medecine that the UN sent to iraq, was given to the population. Don't say stuff like that without good backup :mad:

They blow them up because if Saddam can't have the oil, no one else should, in his mind. The smoke wouldn't stop an aerial attack, all of our pilots are equipment certified, they don't need to be physically able to see anything to perform their missions, and most of our bombs are satellite guided, so it again doesn't matter if we can see it or not.

I don't know where you heard that, but it doesn't make much sense.

LOL!!!

You want backup? Here you go. I hope the Department of State is good enough for you. Download the PDF file and then tell me what you think.

http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/iraq99.htm

Exactly. The 40 something tomahawk missiles were all satellite guidied I think. Unless smoke messes up advanced stuff like GPS, then it will still be good to go... lol.


And... Do you guys think that Saddam will use biological or chemical weapons (if he has any)? If he does, I can only see him using it as a last chance effort where Saddam knows he is gonna lose, so he just blows up stuff... lol. And Saddam hates Israel, right? So what if he launches biological or chemical warfare at them? Everybody knows that Israel has stated to use deadly force (nukes or military i guess) to whoever seriously messes with them. So, Saddam will get messed up either way, lol.

And if Saddam does use biological weapons against American and British troops, then it will definately be game over for Iraq. Because that would be proof that he does have them, so UN will finally authorize the war (even though it allready started), and countries such as Canada, France, Russia and Germany will hop aboard and fight. Not like the British and American troops will need help, but at least politically countries won't be biting eachothers heads off. :p

This is all just opinion, hell I don't even know if it is true or not, lol. So correct me if I am wrong about anything.

GPS=Global Positioning System?

If it does, they could make a non destructible missile with a seat, and you could get from A to B in a jiffy.

I might come to the US, you'll notice me as I'll be the tourist on a missile. Smart.

yeah, the new tomohawk missiles are said to be able to navigate city streets with the GPS capabilities. Pretty fancy stuff.

Pardon? I have no clue what this is supposed to mean... lol... are you making fun of me or something? hehe.. i am confused.

At over 350 miles per hour?


:eek:

Well it ain't making hair pin turns, but it can recognize mainstreet and lower itself in between buildings and make wide turns. Oh, and it will stop at redlights and go on green;)

I wouldn't try riding one of those things to work, though. At that kind of speed, the G-forces would probably rip your intestines out through your stomach. Those missiles are designed to carry much tougher things than humans (i.e. explosives and electronics) after all.

Do I think he will? I'm hoping not, but it wouldn't surprise me. A quote from a journalist (New Yorker):

France, Russia, and Germany still won't fight. Plans are made, they are not in them. It's too late. Don't be surprised if they try to help in humanitarian aid after the fighting, so they can then try to get new contracts with Iraq and try to get as much as they can from post-Saddam Iraq. France is already showing signs.

Politically it would be a good thing if Saddam slimed us, but I really don't give a rats ass about politics, I'd rather have France hate us than see anyone die from these weapons.

I think the word you're looking for is Muslim ;).

And if you ask me, he's not really a good Muslim at all after all the bad he has done, heck, he doesn't even meet the standards of a bad one, and really shouldn't be associated with Islam.

Yes, Saddam should not be called a Muslim.

the funny part is, i said to my friend, "wouldn't it be funny if saddam was killed with the first missile fired" and he may actually have been! a lot of people think that him appearing on tv was prerecorded stuff... i think it was too.

No-one supports Saddam [Muslims].

But we dont want our lands to be invaded for motives which are well known, such as oil, helping Israel...and so on.

There are many things one can say.

Who wants 'liberation' with the price of bombs?

Hey! Look who's back! And making as little sense as ever!

So far I don't see how you can look at what the US is doing in Iraq and be critical at any level. They are taking every step to protect the Iraqi people and has even put Allied lives in jeopardy to do so when in any other case they would have bombed them for 5 days before advancing.

Iraq's own military are surrendering left and right. You would think they never wanted to fight in the first place... THEY DIDN'T!

You're problem with this operation is that a Western nation is liberating a Muslim nation. You have said in previous posts that out arrogance and aggression would cause millions to die. It hasn't. The Iraqi people and military WANT to be liberated and are cooperating. Saddam Hussein is a brutal terror, and I feel sorry for you that you are against the liberation of your own people because its coming at the hands of Christians.

I al;so have to feel that France, Germany and Russia are feeling REALLY dumb right now...

Saddam declared Jihad on America so we should declare a Crusade on him. A holy war for a holy war.

Um... no.

While I appreciate your zeal, I think we have to be very careful about painting ourselves into a religious corner. This operation is about Saddam Hussein, not Islam. The US so far has done an excellent job of keeping this oissue about Saddam Hussein and carefully avoiding as many casualties on both sides as possible.

Remember, we can't be there forever even after a new government is set up, so the impression that we leave will have to act as our representative.

1) Liberate Iraq
2) Immediately identify secular leaders in post Iraq
3) Launch PR campaign complete with pictures of happy Iraqi's with US troops and video of them dancing in the streets.
4) Bring Secular leaders together to draft a document that will act as the rule of law, including a checks and balances system similar to the US (this keeps the winners of the next election from becoming the next Baath party)
5) Form a PARLIAMENT. Reason? Middle Eastern people have traditionally been associated with clans and sects. A 2 parey system would not work for a long time in the Middle East IMO. A Parliamentary system includes may parties that could accurately represent all clans and sects. This way all differing view points are represented.

In order for a democracy to work in any nation, the people must support it. The problem is that the Middle East has never seen a true democracy before, so they have no reason to believe it would work. Make democracy attractive and then the people will do the rest for you.

When i wrote it i meant to put Saddam not iraq. We should just declare a holy war against him.

Once again, other Islamics and Muslims would make no separation of declaring a holy war against Saddam or the entire Islamic world. The Middle East is already every wary of Western influence in their countries. To many we are "Infidels" and our very culture is an attaack on their way of life, as it is attractive to Muslims and Islamics who live in poverty.

We must keep religion out of this all together.

It was meant more as a joke. I did'nt really think people would take it that serious. I know that we can't invole religion because people will fight and die for there beliefs. Declareing a crusade would be one of the worst things we could do, that was not really my opinion it was just meant as a joke. I apologize for any misunderstandings.

From what i've heard on Cnn and Msnbc is that around 250 of iraqs troops have turned themselves over to the US and that more were on the way.

We just bombed bagdad at 9:30 kuwait time. Reports say we fired 300+ cruise missles. Saddams palace was destroyed.