WAR

The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 20, 2003 - 14A

Jan. , 2002
In his State of the Union address, President Bush declares Iraq,
North Korea and Iran as members of the "axis of evil."

"The criminals, the enemies of God, homeland and humanity, launched the
aggression against our homeland and people. May God humiliate them:'
- Radio broadcast in Iraq after attacks began

*I

Sept. 12, 2002-
President Bush asks the Unit-
ed Nations to force Saddam
Hussein to destroy his
weapons of mass destruc-
tion, declaring that the U.N.
"will be irrelevant" and that
"action will be unavoidable"
if it fails to confront the Iraqi
leader. The president also
stated that "a regime that
has lost its legitimacy will
also lose its power."

Nov 8, 2002
The U.N. Security Council
adopts Resolution 1441,
which demands that
lHussein disarm.
-Nov. 27, 2002
U.N. weapons inspectors are
allowed into Iraq, following a
four-year withdrawal.

Sixty days after entering
Iraq, U.N. weapons
inspectors report that Iraq
has failed to fully cooperate.
The inspectors also ask for
at least "a few months" to
complete their inspections.
"Iraq appears not to have
come to a genuine
acceptance, not even today,
of the disarmament that was
demanded of it," chief
inspector Hans Blix tells the
council.
-Jan. 28, 2003
In his State of the Union
address, President Bush says
the United States is prepared
to use the "full force and
might of the U.S. military"
against Iraq. "Some have said
we must not act until the
threat is imminent," Bush
says. "Trusting in the sanity
and restraint of Saddam
Hussein is not a strategy, and
it is not an option."
inFeb. 5, 2003
Secretary of State Colin
Powell presents the U.N.
Security Council with
photographs, excerpts of
intercepted conversations, and
statements from informants in
order to make the case for
war. Powell alleges that Iraq
has failed to disarm, continued
to harbor terrorists, and is
hiding behind a "web of lies."
Despite the evidence, France,
Russia and China continue to
state that weapons inspectors
need more time.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Anti-aircraft
tracers flashed across the skies of
Baghdad and explosions sounded in the
city at dawn today as President Bush
launched war against Saddam Hussein.
Less than two hours after Bush's
deadline for the Iraqi leader to leave the
country, the U.S military attacked with
Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision-
guided bombs dropped from F-117
stealth fighter-bombers.
U.S. government officials said the
strikes targeted Iraqi leaders in what
the president called the opening salvo in
an operation to "disarm Iraq and to free
its people."
Bush emphasized the war was not
against the Iraqi people but their leader-
ship. American messages broadcast on
Iraqi airwaves to the population
declared, "This is the day you have been
waiting for," according to Al-Jazeera TV.
At about 5:30 a.m., air sirens blared in the Iraqi
capital and yellow and white anti-aircraft tracers
streaked through the sky. A number of strong
explosions could be heard. Most seemed to be at
locations outside the city, but one was followed
by a rising ball of fire toward the southern part of
the capital.
Frequent sonic booms and the sounds of aircraft
could be heard in northern Iraq above the city of
Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish autonomous enclave.
In Baghdad, the initial firing stopped after about a
half-hour, and the capital returned to the hush that
reigned there as the deadline neared. The only
sounds during the brief lull was a mosque's muezzin
making the call for dawn Islamic prayers.
Shortly after, the sound of anti-aircraft and more
distant explosions shattered the silence, setting off
car alarms.
After the attack, Iraqi state radio broadcast a mes-
sage saying, "The criminals, the enemies of God,
homeland and humanity, launched the aggression
against our homeland and people. May God humili-
ate them."
Hundreds of armed members of Saddam's Baath
party and security forces took up positions in Bagh-
dad after the attack, though the streets of the capital
were mostly empty of civilians.
There was no sign during the day of regular army
troops or armor in or outside Baghdad, where Sad-
dam was widely expected to make his final stand
against any invaders.
The president on Monday gave Saddam and his
sons 48 hours to leave Iraq, a deadline that expired at
8 p.m. yesterday EST and 4 a.m. Baghdad time. The
Iraqi leadership rejected the ultimatum Tuesday.
Tony Blair - Bush's-key ally against Saddam -
was informed about an hour before the deadline
expired that attacks on Iraq were being brought for-
ward, his office said, declining to specify who con-
tacted the British prime minister.
Yesterday, almost every store was shut in Baghdad
and traffic was light as residents continued to stream
out of the capital, heading for the relative safety of
the countryside.
"We cry for Baghdad," said civil servant and part-
time Baghdad historian Abdel-Jabar al-Tamimi.
"Tonight, we shall be awake waiting for the bombs to
fall, but we will also remember that God is stronger
than oppression. Wars come and go, but Baghdad
will remain."
Al-Shabab - the most watched station in Iraq

L WrW
Feb. 15, 2003
Anti-war protests take place
at cities all over the world,
from London to San Francis-
co, Detroit and East Lans-
ing. More than 250 people,
including LSA freshman
Gabi Strasfogel and Music
freshman Sarah Herard, are
arrested in New York City
for civil disobedience. "The
punishment does not mat-
ter. I see that there's a lot
of policy in the U.S. that
needs to be changed and a
lot of apathetic people,"
Herard says. "We get a lot
more media attention when
we break the law."

AP Photos
TOP: The city of Baghdad as seen yesterday. ABOVE:
Three U.S.S. Donald Cook based Tomahawk Land
Attack Missiles are seen as they are fired yesterday
morning in the Red Sea as they head towards Iraq.
RIGHT: An Iraqi Kurdish family leaves Irbil in Iraq's
northern enclave on Tuesday. Many Kurds left their
homes in key cities for mountain villages seen as
potential sanctuaries if Iraq retaliates against the
Kurd's Western-protected enclave.
and owned by Saddam's son Odai - broadcast
hours of patriotic songs yesterday and extensive
archive footage of Saddam greeting crowds and
firing off a rifle.
At night, the station showed an American
movie, "The Guilty," starring Bill Pullman as a
lawyer who rapes an employee and hires his
estranged son to kill her.
In the minutes after the 4 a.m. deadline expired,
Iraqi TV replayed footage of a pro-Saddam march
earlier in the week, with people brandishing
rifles, chanting slogans and carrying pictures of
the Iraqi leader.
Iraqi officials have remained defiant in the face of
about 300,000 U.S. and British troops backed by
1,000 warplanes and a fleet of warships - all ready
for an attack on Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass
destruction that Washington and London say Saddam
is concealing.
Members of Iraq's parliament declared their loyal-
ty to Saddam yesterday and renewed their confi-
dence in his leadership

. 1

"We are dedicated to martyrdom in defense of Iraq.
under your leadership," they said in a message to
Saddam issued at the end of their session.
Bahrain, a small Persian Gulf state allied with the
United States, offered Saddam a haven yesterday, the
first such offer to be publicly extended to the Iraqi
leader as Arabs scramble to avert war. There was no
immediate Iraqi comment on the offer.
U.N. weapons inspectors flew out of Iraq ,onw
Tuesday, ordered to leave by U.N. Secretary-Gen-
eral Kofi Annan after the United States indicated
war was near.

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