And the dominoes begin to fall:

A popular uprising is reported in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, with civilians taking on Saddam Hussein’s militia.

TV reports this morning say coalition troops are providing artillery fire into the city to support the uprising.

They were said to be targeting Iraqi mortar positions, which were being used against the civilians.

Correspondents near the scene said they had been told British troops surrounding the city would wait until daylight before going in.

This is classic. Daniel Pepper, writing in this weekend’s Telegraph, describes how he went to Baghdad with the intention of being a human shield and left totally disgusted with the anti-war movement:

I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, “Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good”. He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.

As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam’s regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq’s oil money went into Saddam’s pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.

Call Hans Blix! See … if only we’d let the inspectors continue their work they would have been able to … Oh, right, they COULDN’T have made this discovery because when the only thing backing you up is the authority of the UN, you can’t exactly walk freely around Iraq and demand to see hidden weapons, despite what the French ambassador might claim.

From the report:

Experts are examining suspected Scud missiles discovered by British soldiers searching a chemical plant outside Basra.

A number of the grey-painted rockets, about 23ft long, were found in the Dirhamiyah petro-chemical plant close to Iraq’s second city.

The discovery has raised suspicions that Saddam Hussein was planning to arm the missiles with chemical warheads. British officers say it is difficult to find an innocent explanation for storing missiles in a chemical plant.

Back from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I’ll post some pictures and more details later. I’ve been trying to get up to speed on the war news since I missed most of what was happening when I was out of town.

First, the casualties have begun to mount on both sides. The American and British casualties remain low, but the American public needs to to brace itself for the several thousand casualties that might come as part of this war.

Here’s the roll call of American heroes through today. Each one of these men should be hailed as patriots and saluted for their bravery and courage in service to their country.

The opposite of a true patriot is Michael Moore. Here’s a guy who makes films. Not major feature films but documentaries. They are low-budget and attempt to portray the perspective of the “common man.” Michael Moore is not the common man. He doesn’t understand the plight of average Americans, even if he does his best to look disheveled and slovenly. He decided to use his Oscar acceptance speech to throw his proverbial (and literal) weight around:

I’ve invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us. They are here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time when we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it is the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. We are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you. And any time that you have the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.

Cute, but stupid. Opening with a slam against the legitimacy of Bush’s presidency illustrates the general problem with Moore and the whole anti-war movement. If they want to protest the war, then protest the war. Form some logical, reasoned responses to the conflict and attempt to further those claims. What’s happening now is that the anti-war movement is lumping itself in with every other liberal cause out there, and ultimately, is castrating itself. How can you convince average Americans that the war is a bad idea when Michael Moore and the rest of these empty-headed Hollywood become your spokespeople. This same point is made here.

And from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Moore sneered that we have a “fictitious president,” alluding to the controversial 2000 election which, from Moore’s view, ended unhappily. More disappointing for him was the 2002 election, which Democrats made a referendum on Bush and which he won stunningly. Moore scoffed that the war was being fought “for fictitious reasons.” Never mind 17 UN resolutions ignored by Saddam Hussein, two wars against neighbors, or the murder, torture, rape and oppression endured by millions of Iraqis.

But these, of course, are facts, and Moore wouldn’t let pesky things like that get in his way. Nor would the thought of dead Americans on a battlefield far from home deny this egomaniac his chance to prance and strut on the stage, spewing rantings that amount to “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Not shot down, as the Iraqis are claiming.

A U.S. military Special Operations helicopter made a crash landing in southern Iraq early on Thursday but the crew and elite troops aboard were rescued, U.S. officials said.

The crash of the MH-53 “Pave Low” special operations helicopter was the first known loss of an American aircraft in the war against Iraq. It occurred before U.S. bombing and cruise missile raids were launched against targets on the outskirts of Baghdad before dawn, officials told Reuters.

Last night we attempt a surgical strike at the Iraqi leadership in Baghdad. A brilliant tactic because if we take out one or all of them, especially Saddam himself, then we significantly reduce the amount of work ahead of us. Soften up Baghdad and move on in …

Saddam makes a televised appearance, but it is it the REAL Saddam?

Iraq tries to strike back with those Scud missiles that they used to claim they didn’t have.

Once the sun set in Baghdad again this evening, the bombing began again. The ground war also seems to have begun.

Reports of oil wells on fire in Iraq.

Unfunny occassional movie director Michael Moore has written President Bush a letter. *yawn* Here we go:

There is virtually NO ONE in America (talk radio nutters and Fox News aside) who is gung-ho to go to war. Trust me on this one. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON’T FIND THEM! Why? ‘Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us! No Iraqi has even threatened to do that. You see, this is how we average Americans think: If a certain so-and-so is not perceived as a threat to our lives, then, believe it or not, we don’t want to kill him! Funny how that works!

Mr. Moore, may I direct you to this article that describes the crimes against humanity committed by the Iraqi regime:

Another witness told us about practices of the security services towards women: “Women were suspended by their hair as their families watched; men were forced to watch as their wives were raped . . . women were suspended by their legs while they were menstruating until their periods were over, a procedure designed to cause humiliation.”

You see, Mr. Moore, this war isn’t about killing Iraqis. It’s about disarming a brutal dictator who has committed atrocities against his own people and who would like to do the same to his neighbors and eventually us. For someone who got all hot an bothered about the amount of guns in America, you should check out what goes on in Baghdad.

He goes on …

The majority of Americans — the ones who never elected you — are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction. We know what the real issues are that affect our daily lives — and none of them begin with I or end in Q. Here’s what threatens us: two and a half million jobs lost since you took office, the stock market having become a cruel joke, no one knowing if their retirement funds are going to be there, gas now costs almost two dollars — the list goes on and on. Bombing Iraq will not make any of this go away. Only you need to go away for things to improve.

Blame the economy … Yeah, that’s a good one. A war in Iraq will help to stimulate the economy, drive down the price of oil, and bring much-needed stability to the region. You have those leftist crib notes pretty well memorized.

And there’s more …

As Bill Maher said last week, how bad do you have to suck to lose a popularity contest with Saddam Hussein? The whole world is against you, Mr. Bush. Count your fellow Americans among them.

Yeah, yeah, we know, the WHOLE WORLD is against us … except for Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Czech Republic, the rest of Eastern Europe, most of the former Soviet Republics, Kuwait, Qatar, Israel, Australia …

And on …

Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! If you really want to stand up for America, please send your twin daughters over to Kuwait right now and let them don their chemical warfare suits. And let’s see every member of Congress with a child of military age also sacrifice their kids for this war effort. What’s that you say? You don’t THINK so? Well, hey, guess what — we don’t think so either!

Let me get this right: Michael Moore is lecturing someone about the military. Every single man and woman in the military today is there because they chose to be there to serve their country wherever that might take them. Please do not insult the American military by insinuating that just because President Bush doesn’t have a child in the military today that he lacks the moral authority to fight this war. Did Bill Clinton send Chelsea to Iraq or Somalia or the Balkans when he decided to play commander-in-chief? Just shut up …

This guy is such an ignorant gas bag. Wow!

Mike over at ColdFury.com has predicted the flavor of things to come:

* We will see preposterously inflated body counts and claims of civilian casualties.

* We will see news reporters suggesting that the US military is unconscionably restricting their access to information, their unfettered ability to release said information, and that the US military is lying about various things, all of which add up to thwarting the “people’s right to know.”

* We will see raw Iraqi propaganda passed on by the media unquestioningly, presented as absolute and obvious truth.

* We will see increasing hysteria and even violence from the “peace” movement.

* We will see, within mere days, reports of how badly the war is going and the ultimate hopelessness of ever achieving true victory.

* We will see some mistakes made, some friendly fire incidents, some random sites hit due to faulty intelligence or mechanical failure - and incredible flagellation of the military and political leaders because it’s their fault that these tragedies happened. Litttle mention will be made of Saddam’s being in material breach of UN 1441 and his support for terrorist groups as the “root cause” for this war.

* We will see the deaths of human shields positioned to protect military installations, with very little if any mention of Saddam’s responsibility for placing them in harm’s way, and no mention whatever of the monstrousness of his action in so doing. Those who complained so bitterly about Gitmo being a “violation of the Geneva Conventions” will have very little to say about Saddam’s.

* We will see acts of sabotage at our military bases and increasing harassment of soldiers in certain places at home.

* We will see celebrities personally insulting our Commander in Chief, both more virulently and more ridiculously. Some, as have the Dixie Chicks and others, will do so on foreign soil, giving aid and comfort to our enemies while simultaneously avowing their “patriotism.” A few celebrities will threaten to leave America forever, and none will do so.

* We will see network news anchors and reporters fairly weeping over the deaths of Iraqi civilians while reporting American casualties with blithe unconcern.

* All of the people doing all of the above will complain bitterly about how outrageous and unfair it is for them to be labeled “anti-American.”

Seems like the federalization of the airporty security workers is finally paying off:

An airline passenger who had two “No War with Iraq” signs in his suitcase says the federal security agent who opened his luggage inserted a note criticizing his “anti-American attitude.”

A handwritten note on the card said: “Don’t appreciate your anti-American attitude!

If it’s a true story, then it IS a little weird. But what do you expect after all the nonsense being generated by the moronic anti-war protestors?

This guy drives me crazy. I don’t mind dissent or the questioning of authority. It’s hte sign of a healthy democracy to express opposing viewpoints. But this guy is just a moron:

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle lashed out at President Bush on Monday, saying he had “failed so miserably” at diplomacy in the crisis with Iraq that the United States now stands on the brink of war.

“I’m saddened,” Daschle, D-South Dakota, said in a speech to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “Saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country. But we will work, and we will do all we can to get through this crisis like we’ve gotten through so many.”

So it’s Bush’s fault that France refused to hear any evidence that would persuade it NOT to use the veto in the Security Council?

Joe Lieberman is only slightly better than Daschle:

“It’s time to come together and support our great American men and women in uniform and their commander-in-chief,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democratic contender for the 2004 presidential nomination. He has been among the most supportive Democrats of a possible military strike against Iraq.

“If military action is necessary, the fault will clearly be Saddam Hussein’s,” Lieberman said. He urged other nations to “stand strong and together.” But the Connecticut Democrat also faulted “the Bush administration’s unilateralist divisive foreign policy, which has pushed a lot of the world away.”

Both these guys realize that when this war is successful, their chances of winning the White House will vaporize.

When it comes time to choose up sides, look who has stumbled back over to our side. The Turks realize that when push comes to shove, you always want to bet on a winner:

Turkey’s top political and military leaders called on the government to take urgent action to allow in U.S. troops.

The announcement came at the end of a meeting that included the leaders of Turkey’s new government, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and top generals.

Other countries that have been with us since the beginning are now putting boots on the ground. Poland to Commit Troops in War With Iraq and Australia Says It Would Commit Troops to an Iraq War.

This has been one of those weekends that you look back upon as having been monumental once the bombs start dropping.

First, you have Bush, Blair, et al., on a remote island off of Portugal meeting to discuss what to do with the UN. They come up with the idea that Monday is the last chance to get Saddam to disarm:

President Bush says Monday’s deadline for Iraq to account for its banned weapons is the final day for the U.N. Security Council to act on disarming Iraq.

President Bush, following a summit in the Azores with the leaders of Britain, Spain and Portugal, says Monday’s deadline for Iraq to account for its banned weapons is what he calls “a moment of truth for the world”.

Mr. Bush told a press conference following the summit that Monday’s events will determine whether diplomacy can work. He repeated that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein can leave the country if he chooses, but added that he will disarm or be disarmed by force.

So now it looks like the only two possible outcomes are (1) Saddam can go into exile, leaving Iraq to disarm itself under the supervision of the UN [I call this the fairy tale option.] or (2) Saddam continues to defy the UN as he has done for much of the last 12 years and the US and our allies begin a campaign the likes of which the world has never seen. Honestly, the war will lost a matter of days and the American casualties will be in the dozens. Most Iraqi soldiers will surrender or turn on Saddam, and those that do not will die in Baghdad. Either way, the story of the late summer and fall will be about the new Iraqi Congress and their efforts to bring democracy to their nation.

In other news … we call this a tip-off: U.S. Orders Diplomats Out of Kuwait, Syria, Israel … Saddam divides up the country into four military zones, for easier carving by America and her allies. How nice of him to make it simple like this for us!