Here’s an interesting, though shallow article on the kinds of debates that have arisen regarding the war in Iraq. The debates extend far beyond the pros and cons of the war itself.

Here’s an interesting article in the New Republic about a favorite topic of conservatives: the liberal bias of the media and its portrayal of the war in Iraq. The New Republic is a subscriber service, so here is an excerpt.

"To read David Frum and other hawks, you'd think the press was concocting a story of U.S. military failure to suit its peacenik predispositions. And that's convenient, because journalists are a pathetically easy target (especially when you attack them as a group rather than naming individuals). But the media is simply the messenger. And attacking it has become a way for hawks to avoid confronting two, far more formidable foes: the uniformed military and the prewar expectations set by hawks themselves.

"Conservatives hate getting into spats with the military, especially in wartime. But the glaring truth is that, in questioning the Bush administration's conduct of the war, reporters are relying overwhelmingly on the opinion of current and former military officers. If hawks really believe the current war plan has been unfairly maligned, the honest response would be for them to respond directly to its military critics . . . either by defending the plan's assumptions or by defending the broader principle of civilian involvement in war planning. Instead, hawks have trained their fire on journalists, whose motives are easier to impugn.

"But criticism from the military isn't the only thing fueling media skepticism about the success of the war. The other factor is hawks' own predictions of easy victory."


April 8 – Tuesday
In Baghdad
US drops a bomb on what they claim is a meeting between Saddam Hussein and his sons in a residential neighborhood. BBC says that Hussein does not go to his bunkers, but hides in residential neighborhoods.
Rageh Omaar :: 0710GMT At the foot of the building there are tanks positioned on a bridge over the Tigris, firing at Iraqi defensive positions. But there's a new sound in the city - rotor blades from attack helicopters. It feels like an all out assault.
Andrew Gilligan :: 0906GMT There is a possibility that someone could have been sniping from the top floor of this hotel, which has now been targeted. The side of the hotel looks out east and not over the river. I'm puzzled as to why the Americans would have targeted this.
Andrew Gilligan :: 1201GMT The Americans are now pushing from the north, the south east and outwards from the centre onto the east bank of the Tigris but there has been quite fierce Iraqi resistance. 500 Iraqi Republican Guards take buses to try to retake territory on the other side of the Tigris.
US Marines continue fighting in SE Baghdad and capture the Rashid military airfield. U.S. marines from the Seventh Regiment moved to secure the Rashid air base.
US and Iraqi troops inside Saddam Hussein's presidential palace compound exchange heavy artillery and tank fire as US tanks try to move north.
101st Airborne captured a Republican Guard compound near the international airport in Baghdad.
Marines from an infantry battalion found a "battalion's worth" of tanks abandoned on the north side of a bridge through the village of Kumayt, across the Tigris River,
US army tanks crossed the Tigris towards where the Marines are fighting.
Heavy fighting around the government buildings in the center of Baghdad.

Marines outside Baghdad
24th MEU in Qalat Sukkar – 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines arrived April 7
24th MEU, Service Support Group 24 working on Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit in Umm Qasr
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is taking up positions south of Baghdad for what could be a new front in the war in central Iraq. A division of the regular Iraqi army appears to be almost intact despite air attacks and still posing a threat between here and the Iranian border to the east. – BBC
US Marines with Andrew North, BBC have moved out of Nasiriyah and are quieting pockets of resistance and involved in humanitarian needs of local towns and villages.
Task Force Tarawa swung east today toward Amara to confront the 10th Armored Division of the Iraqi Army and determine whether it intended to surrender.

Southern Iraq and Basra
British officials said a local ``sheikh'' would form the leadership in Basra province
Former American General Buff Walters arrives in Umm Qasr to begin reconstruction under American authority.
British hold Basra, but do not control it. Lawlessness and massive looting run rampant. British are not providing police until they have the military situation under control. Their main aim is to hunt down any Iraqi paramilitaries who may still pose a threat. They say at the moment, they are not here to police the city.

Northern Iraq
Kurdish soldiers backed by US special forces are gradually advancing on the Iraqi-controlled towns of Kirkuk and Mosul

Outside Iraq
The leader of Iraq's main Shia Muslim opposition group announces he will return home after living in exile in Iran.
President Bush says UN will have a 'vital role' in postwar Iraq but details are vague.

Other Areas:
The International Committee of the Red Cross visited the local hospital in Hilla following attacks by American forces and reported 300 civilian casualties.

Journalists in Iraq
Two Polish journalists escape their captors and reach safety in the central Iraqi city of Najaf.
Rageh Omaar :: 0851GMT There was a round that directly hit the Reuters office. I raced up there and it's a grim situation. Several colleagues have been quite badly wounded and one of them critically. I don't know if it was deliberate. I doubt it. The situation with Al-Jazeera, initially, looks suspect. Their office had given Washington specific satellite references. We were watching and filming the bombardment and its quite clearly a direct strike on the Al-Jazeera office. This was not just a stray round. It just seemed too specific.
Four Reuters staff - a reporter, photographer, TV cameraman and TV technician - and a Spanish cameraman were wounded in the Palestine Hotel blast and are in hospital. Reuters cameraman and Spanish cameraman die.
Al-Jazeera television correspondent Tariq Ayyub has died of injuries

Total Journalist Deaths in Iraq
8 April: Jose Couso (Telecinco, Spain)
8 April: Taras Protsyuk (Reuters, UK)
8 April: Tareq Ayoub (al-Jazeera, Qatar)
7 April: Christian Liebig (Focus, Germany)
7 April: Julio Anguita Parrado (El Mundo, Spain)
6 April: David Bloom (NBC, US)
6 April: Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed (BBC, UK)
4 April: Michael Kelly (Washington Post, US)
2 April: Kaveh Golestan (BBC, UK)
30 March: Gaby Rado (ITN, UK)
22 March: Paul Moran (ABC, Australia)
22 March: Terry Lloyd (ITN, UK)

April 5 – Saturday
A US Cavalry unit moved eastward towards towards Amara and attacked Iraqi army and Hammurabi Republican Guard.
Shi’a uprising in Amara, British troops moving north towards town.