Who says we're (not) at war?

Still, I'll argue that we've been at war with Saddam since 1991. At least Saddam has never been out of war with us. That's his motivation for backing the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, if Laurie Mylroie is right -- and that would be his motivation for helping Atta & friends last year (if he did). So, yes, we should oust him. But we should also make it formal, and declare war. This is a democracy, right?

Erikson's column comes courtesy of Instapundit.

More on planes 'buzzing Baghdad'

Having been stationed at prince Sultan Air Base numerous times and knowing first hand how the Saudi Government limits our military activities from their air base, I find it hard to believe that waves of anything left PSAB for a flight over Baghdad. Secondly, with Afghanistan still going on and a carrier actively engaged in the North Indian Ocean, which "carriers" are left to be launching waves of bombers over Iraq??

Radio Free Mike's surveillance satellite is on the fritz, I'm afraid, so I have no idea.

Cynthia Ozick

Some will say, how is it you have the gall to use so unforgivably denigrating a term as "barbarians"? Must you despise your opponents as other, as not of your own flesh? What of the humanity of the other? Are we not all equally flawed, equally capable of mercy? Are we ourselves not in some respects worse? Shall we not be decent to the other?

But -- in a jurisprudential democracy especially -- a moment may come when it is needful to be decent to our own side, concerning whom we are not to witness falsely or even carelessly in order to prove how worse we are. Without such loyalty -- not always a popular notion among the global sentimentalists -- you may find you are too weak in self-respect to tell the truth or to commit yourself to the facts ... "I have seen the enemy and he is us" is not always and everywhere true; and self-blame can be the highest form of self-congratulation.

Debka hoo-hah

Drums of War

Aha! Official word.

Debkajournalism

I doubt that I am the first to tell you this, but DEBKA is of uncertain reliability. According the DEBKA, there were 6,000 Chinese troops in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban last winter, setting the stage for a China/USA crisis. DEBKA is interesting, and its analysis of the machinations of the Palestinians is often (I believe) close to the truth. But I don't know about this report you mention. If American and British war planes were massively buzzing Baghdad last weekend, don't you think we would have heard about it from al-Jeezera or some other source? Wouldn't the antiwar elements, like The New York Times, have loved to report this story? Wouldn't the Iraqis have made some noise about it to argue that the USA was violating Iraqi airspace outside the "no fly" zones in a provocative manner? I read DEBKA, but I don't take it as gospel without confirmation from other sources. After all, we don't even know who DEBKA really is. It may be a disinformation site for the Israelis.

War?

Tuesday August 6, at 0800 hours Middle East time, US and British air bombers went into action and destroyed the Iraqi air command and control center at al-Nukhaib in the desert between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The center contained advanced fiber optic networks recently installed by Chinese companies. ÊDEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs military sources say the raid made military history. For the first time, the US air force used new precision-guided bombs capable of locating and destroying fiber optic systems. The existence of such weaponry was hitherto unknown.

Following the destruction of the facility, about 260 miles (415 kilometers), southwest of Baghdad, waves of US warplanes swept in from the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia and from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf and flew over the Iraqi capital.

The Iraqi air force and anti-aircraft system held their fire on orders from above. This deep air penetration told the Americans that the early warning radar system protecting Baghdad and its environs from intrusion by enemy aircraft and missiles was inactive.

I happen to be a hawk on Iraq, but it bugs me that I have to learn about my own country's military maneuvers from a news service in Israel. No wonder Iraq closed down any hope of arms inspections over the weekend. They know the idea is a sham.