April 1, 2003
WE'RE SEEING A MOVIE OF THE WEEK IN HER FUTURE:
Teen PoW rescued behind enemy lines (AP, April 2 2003)An American prisoner of war has been rescued in Iraq, as US forces engaged in major fighting with Iraq's Republican Guard near Karbala, the last big city before Baghdad .A 19-year-old American woman soldier held prisoner by the Iraqis has been rescued in a military operation, military officials and US media said.
US central Command's Brigadier General Vincent Brooks refused to provide any further details or identify the rescued POW.
However US television networks reported the captured soldier was 19-year-old Army private Jessica Lynch, 19, from Palestine in West Virginia.
Reports said Lynch, a supply clerk, was rescued by US Army Rangers and Navy Seals and her family had been told. [...]
A CNN reporter in Nasiriyah said the rescue was in Nasiriyah and is part of a US attack in the city. The prisoner was in a hospital there, CNN said.
The public momentum of the war seems to have shifted today--a rescue, Saddam assumed dead, reports that the incidents at checkpoints are being orchestrated by the Ba'athists, and, as David notes below, movement around Baghdad... Posted by Orrin Judd at April 1, 2003 8:35 PM
You wouldn't know it from any of the non-blogged
reports I've seen or heard, but this is
the most spectacular, cheapest military
victory since, I believe, Omdurman.
After 15 days, the Iraqis have barely
been able to offer any organized resistance,
the largest organized action seems to
have been an unsupported company-size
infantry assault, the kill ratios are off the
chart.
Know what it is? Cakewalk. So far, anyway.
I'm grateful for and acknowledge our successes, but the key phrase here is "so far." I really am quite nervous about how this Baghdad issue goes down. I don't mind it if chemical weapons are launched, as long as they fail to do much harm at all. In fact, I would prefer it because it would show they have the means and were willing to use them. I just hope thing collapse in the end, and we don't have to go weeding.
Posted by: RC at April 2, 2003 1:46 AMRemember Afghanistan at the same timepoint (November 2001): "Quagmire", "hopeless", "never defeated", "Horrible Afghan Winter", Tom Friedman's hand wringing, Robert Fisk's pronoucements.
Just relax and wait.
Terrifically heroic. Reading of this rescue is fabulously uplifting. For everyone.
At least, it should be.
It's no Entebbe, but we'll take it. :)
Posted by: oj at April 2, 2003 12:16 PM