Here are some reader e-mail letters we've received on Bush and the War in Iraq:

Two thoughts:

1. - -When the press did not speak out or ask questions we and many pundits felt it was because they feared losing access to the white house. We now know it was because they did not want to lose access to the war.

I watched one reporter on last night who grinning was reporting, (with tanks
rolling behind him) that no journalist had gotten to do this before and it was really exciting.

Another report I read about was a news propagandist who was reporting in
full gear, gas mask in place, but they forgot to cut the feed when he was
done and you saw him pull off his gas mask and joke around. . .

War Against America As Well

A point that was raised last night at the rally I attended was that this war is an attack on America as well as Iraq.

Every bomb that is dropped is dropped on America, because ultimately, the money spent is being taken away from services. Each bomb dropped destroys
a daycare center or nursing home facility here in this country, because the funds are stolen from the public coffers to finance the war machine. "

This may be a deliberate policy. Dubya has already opened 300 billion dollar deficits. Meanwhile, this war is "off budget". We could be looking at 500 billion dollars deficits before its all over. Its an extension of the IMF's debt and "austerity" plan to impoverish the country. (David Stockton admitted that Reagan's plan was to bankrupt the government so all of those socialist programs could be stopped - maybe King George is just carrying on with that plan?)

From Charles Boremann, A War for the Soul of the Nation:

Today liberal and progressive voices within the Democratic Party are in full retreat much like the British at Dunkirk. Beaten badly but not defeated as even the British came back from horrible defeat, survived a long bombing campaign, re-organized and claimed victory. Herein we see the great lesson of history in that the moral will of the people always prevails.

The U.S. has demanded that Iraq diplomats leave the U.S. by midnight tonight. On Wednesday, the diplomats were given 48 hours to leave the country.

When a diplomat is declared persona non-grata, he is expected to leave and take his family with him.

[State Dept. Spokesman Louis] Fintor could not say where the Iraqi diplomats would go. Normally when diplomats are expelled they are expected to return to their country.

However, because of the war it would be difficult for the ousted Iraqi diplomats and their families to return home. They can, however, go to Algeria, which will be considered a host country because the Iraqi interest section is located at the Algerian Embassy. The diplomats could also seek asylum in a third country.

Yesterday, the U.S. asked 67 other countries to sever ties with Iraq and close Iraqi embassies. Only two, Australia and Romania, have indicated they intend to do so.

The UPI is reporting that the decapitation attempt on Saddam Hussein two nights ago was the result of a secret CIA operation in which Delta operatives compromised a fiberoptic communication center and intercepted calls among Iraqi leaders.

The article reports

A CIA source said Saddam it is believed "sustained two burst ear drums" during the attack on the three-building compound. Saddam "also sustained damage from concussion" and was "extremely disoriented...almost in a vegetative state" for a time.

Sources also advised UPI that it has highly credible reports Saddam's son Qusay was killed in the attack.

Two U.S. legal groups are maintaining that the U.S. Invasion of Iraq is Illegal.

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq violates the basic rules of the United Nations Charter requiring countries to exhaust all peaceful means of maintaining global security before taking military action, and permitting the use of force in self-defense only in response to actual or imminent attack, two U.S. legal groups said Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council's refusal to approve a resolution proposed by the United States, Britain and Spain clarified that the weapons inspection process initiated by Security Council Resolution 1441 last November should have been permitted to continue before military action could be authorized, added The Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) and the Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF).

The two groups, the U.S. affiliates of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), supported an open letter signed by 31 Canadian international law professors released Wednesday that called a U.S. attack against Iraq "a fundamental breach of international law (that) would seriously threaten the integrity of the international legal order that has been in place since the end of the Second World War."

Iraq Body Count provides a worldwide update of civilian casualties in the war on Iraq. Check out their database. If you want, you can download a counter for your site as we've done. It is the work of Marc Herold, Ph.D, Departments of Economics and Women's Studies at the University of New Hampshire.

The IRAQ BODY COUNT Database

This is a Human Security project to establish an independent and comprehensive public database of civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military actions by the USA and its allies in 2003. Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available on this page and on various IBC counters which may be freely displayed on any website, where they will be automatically updated without further intervention. Casualty figures are derived from a comprehensive survey of online media reports. Where these sources report differing figures, the range (a minimum and a maximum) are given. All results are independently reviewed and error-checked by at least three members of the Iraq Body Count project team before publication.

The project takes as its starting point and builds upon the earlier work of Professor Marc Herold who has produced the most comprehensive tabulation of civilian deaths in the war on Afghanistan from October 2001 to the present, and the methodology has been designed in close consultation with him.

Professor Herold commented: “I strongly support this initiative. The counting of civilian dead looms ever more importantly for at least two reasons: military sources and their corporate mainstream media backers seek to portray the advent of precision guided weaponry as inflicting at most, minor, incidental civilian casualties when, in truth, such is is not the case; and the major source of opposition to these modern ‘wars’ remains an informed, articulate general public which retains a commitment to the international humanitarian covenants of war at a time when most organized bodies and so-called ‘experts’ have walked away from them”.

ABC News has an article today on the possible cost of the war and the added strain to the U.S. economy.

The Administration hasn't said what it will cost yet, estimates are between $40 billion and $100 billion. Not a penny of it was included in Bush's recent deficit budget. Here are some other estimates:

How expensive the fighting part of the war is depends on the intensity of battle and how long it lasts. The estimates range from $18 billion for a one-month war to $85 billion for a six-month war. Sound expensive? It's probably the cheap part.

The real cost could be in the post-war occupation of Iraq.

Already the Pentagon has authorized $900-million for post-war rebuilding in Iraq, including the rebuilding of roads and bridges, the building of schools, hospitals and homes, and the repairing of the electrical grid and other utilities. "We're talking about as much as $50 billion a year for 10 years," adds Meyer. "Well, you can see that gets very expensive and dwarfs dramatically the cost of the combat phase."

Lisa English of Ruminate This is all over Richard Perle, Bush's "Svengali" and his comment expressing relief that the U.N. is "dead."

Who is Richard Perle? Well, he's chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an advisory panel that reports to the Pentagon, and he's a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) - the same outfit that drew up that blueprint for US world domination. But more importantly, Richard Perle is among a handful of neoconservatives who are guiding George Bush through the twists and turns of an Iraqi campaign that some believe could fairly be called an exercise in international war crimes. Perle doesn't care about all that blather. He has little regard for the international community, anyway.

Not to mention, Lisa says, he's a "loose cannon." Just what we need right now.

For those waiting for "Shock and Awe," it is now underway as the U.S. unleashed a blitz on Baghdad Friday night.

U.S.-led forces unleashed a devastating blitz on Baghdad on Friday night, triggering giant fireballs, deafening explosions and huge mushroom clouds above the city center. Missiles slammed into palaces of President Saddam Hussein, and key government buildings, in an onslaught that far exceeded strikes that launched the war on Thursday, Reuters correspondents said. "The earth is literally shaking in Baghdad," Reuters correspondent Khaled Oweis said.

Sean-Paul over at the Agonist has all the latest--he's been providing almost round the clock coverage.

Daily Kos reports that Iraqi resistance is greater than we've been told and Reuters is getting it right.

"Police arrested more than 1,000 people in San Francisco on Thursday -- the most taken into custody on a single day in the city in decades -- as tens of thousands protested across America against the U.S. war in Iraq."

``If this was happening in every city, there would either be martial law or an end to war,'' said one Berkeley student who chained himself to 16 others on a major San Francisco street. Protests took place in other cities across the United States as well as in European capitals."

Pictures are here. More news is here. Hundreds were arrested in Chicago as more than 10,000 attended a spontaneous protest. They closed Lakeshore Drive. Direct Action Against the War explains why they are taking it to the streets.

MoveOn.Org says, "The outbreak of war is not the end of the fight for peace – only the beginning." They are asking people to sign a Citizens' Declaration

As a US-led invasion of Iraq begins, we, the undersigned citizens of many countries, reaffirm our commitment to addressing international conflicts through the rule of law and the United Nations. By joining together across countries and continents, we have emerged as a new force for peace. As we grieve for the victims of this war, we pledge to redouble our efforts to put an end to the Bush Administration's doctrine of pre-emptive attack and the reckless use of military power.

MoveOn would also like you to put a candle in your window "to keep the light of reason and hope burning, to let others know that they are not alone, and to show the way home to the young men and women sent to Iraq."

Here is the Text of the House War Resolution.

"The House resolution, intended to show Congress' unified support for U.S. troops in Iraq, passed overwhelmingly early Friday, but angered some Democrats who said they felt pressured into backing President Bush's decision to go to war."

Where is Saddam? U.S. intelligence officials believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, possibly accompanied by one or both of his powerful sons, was still inside a compound in southern Baghdad early Thursday when it was struck by a barrage of U.S. bombs and cruise missiles. No one knows for sure. Stay tuned.

Gary Hart's Statement on the War

History alone must be the judge of the justice and necessity of our current war.

I have argued, unsuccessfully, for permanent, international, coercive inspections and disarmament of Iraq but President Bush has chosen unilateral war. The die is cast.

President Bush has now taken our nation on a new, uncharted, and potentially dangerous course. We must not only question that course, but also offer a better, more constructive alternative.

In 2004, the American people will render their verdict on this war and its adverse impact on American lives, American economic well-being and on the elevated risk of terrorist attack.

In the meantime, we must all support and pray for the security and quick success of America's armed forces and the safety of innocent civilians.

God bless our troops and God bless America.

Gary Hart
Kittredge, CO