Before the 'Force' is used to wipe it from memory, before it is quietly left never to be discussed again, that house of 'possibly' deserves to have its story told. The media is now only concerned whether or not Saddam was killed in the blast, not who might have actually died. Paul McGeough has the story. He was there.

"Four or five houses have disappeared and in their place is a crater maybe 30-40 metres wide and 15-20 metres deep.

Some of the photographers use a chilling term they picked up from the US military in Afghanistan to describe what might have happened to a dozen or more people thought to have died in this missile attack. They have become "pink mist".

The smouldering crater is littered with the artefacts of ordinary middle-class life in Baghdad - a crunched Passat sedan, a wrought-iron front gate, the armrest of a chair upholstered in green brocade and a broken bedhead.

The top floors of surrounding buildings are sheared off. Mud thrown by the force of the blast cakes what is left of them, and the nearby date palms are decapitated. Bulldozers and rescue crews work frantically, peeling back the rubble in the hope of finding survivors.

Neighbours and relatives of the home-owners weep openly in the street, some embracing to ease the pain and all of them wondering why such a powerful missile was dumped on them after the US has stated its heavy bombing campaign is over.

But this is an opportunistic strike. Four bunker-busters - 2000-pound JDAM bombs - are dropped on the house in which the US "believes" Saddam, his sons and other top officials "might" have been meeting.

Anonymous US officials are quoted saying that on Monday they had received intelligence of a high-level meeting in Mansour of Iraqi intelligence officials and, "possibly", Saddam and his two sons, Qusay and Uday.

But that cuts no ice with the neighbours. The nearest house has stood for 43 years but now it is on the verge of collapse and the adult children of the blood-splattered engineer Fadel al-Imam, aged 75, are working to convince him he must leave.

With his back to the door of his wrecked library, where floor-to-ceiling shelves bulge with a lifetime's collection of engineering texts and there is a shattered photo of his policeman father in the service of the last Western occupiers of Iraq, the British, he says: "I reserve the right not to obey any government.

"This will create more enemies for the Americans. Even those who were feeling good about the arrival of the Americans will want to fight now."

We can only guess at what will happen next. " - Paul McGeough

The whole entry is here: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/08/1049567687503.html

This is what you'll see on TV today (along with oohing and ahhing over Saddam's palace. Cripes, people. Have you freaking seen Airforce One? That's some hi-tech opulence. That palace is a joke; no more worthy than a Gabor cast-off.). You'll see US officials being very vague, re-iterating how they had 'good intelligence' (Please note that they will state this over and over . It's imperative that the viewer be prepped.) and seeming to hold out the possibility that Hussein was in that building. They'll hold out until you've forgotten about it (or something else has caught the media's attention) and then let it go. But the people there know and won't forget. They will remember that the invaders killed their family for what they can see as no apparent reason (If you control the city, why do you need to drop 8,000 pounds of explosives to kill 2 or 3 men? This one act pretty much sums up the US's entire attitude toward war. Big hammers.). Ahhh there's one on a US morning show now... and guess what he's saying... But, hey, Jessica Lynch is OK and eating turkey and carrots. What more do these people want? (for the record, that was not a dig at her, it's a dig at the media). Oh! And they're looking at 'Saddam's bathroom' and cracking jokes. "Pink Mist", y'all... "Pink Mist".

War. Good God, y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'.*

My quote of the day: "The more technologically advanced a war you are capable of mounting, the less excuse you should have to mount it."

We didn't do all that we could. We're as guilty of neglecting real action as we're accusing the UN of being. We stood in the way when changes were suggested. Now we've launched this 'war' and killed many many civilians in the process. And we've done it, supposedly, in their name. For their good. To 'free' them. The only people who are 'free' are those who've died.

This war pains me. Perhaps I haven't made this clear, but I 'do' believe Saddam Hussein is a bad man who needs to be 'brought down' (in Bush lingo), but I do 'not' believe this is the just and moral way to do it. We are not apes.

Well, then again... read this...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2479.htm
I dunno anymore. And for the proverbial record. I do 'support our troops', but I can't support the killers among them (see Cpl. Ryan Dupre). For those I wish lots and lots of mental health help when they return and removal from service.

It's all so wrong...

*A fond farewell to Agent Double-O Soul, Edwin Starr who died recently. He understood.