http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2920131.stm

Black Hawk Down revisited, but with the Americans on the winning side.

On a thankfully lighter note:

Call to prayer revived by troops

By Sarah Oliver
In southern Iraq


It is a sound which has echoed down the centuries but which has not been heard here for 15 years - the wailing call to prayer.

On Friday however, at 0430 (0130 GMT), in the minutes before the desert dawn, the voice of the Imam rang out.

What Saddam's Baath party had forbidden, the British Army had restored.

The townspeople, whose mosque was destroyed years ago, prayed in the privacy of their own homes.

But instead of their worship being a secret and dangerous thing, it was freely performed with new joy.

The 1st Battalion Royal Irish secured a public address system for the Imam and men from their attached Royal, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers installed it on Thursday night in time for Friday prayers.

'Top priority'

By next Friday, commanding officer Lt Colonel Tim Collins hopes to have a prayer tent in place so the community can gather for the traditional midday address.

He said: "Banning prayer and denying Muslim people a mosque is simply one more manifestation of the Baath party's evil regime.

"From the moment we began our hearts and minds campaign here its restoration was a top priority.

"From now they will have their call to prayer five times a day - it will no longer be conducted behind closed doors, it will be done openly, as it should be."

Although the Imam was permitted to offer pastoral care, he was not allowed to fulfil his role as their religious leader, leaving the population of 4,000 struggling with the secular ideals of Baath.

Significant sign

On Friday, as dozens of townspeople thronged the alleyway at the back of his shabby terraced home, it was clear they had not forgotten their God.

The return of the call to prayer is perhaps the most significant sign yet that the shanty communities inhabiting the wealthy oilfields of southern Iraq are recovering their equilibrium under occupation by the British Army.

Another is the re-opening of the barber's shop where many officers from the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment are paying 250 dinars (10p) for a trim, which is finished with a cut-throat razor.

The primary and secondary schools with 40 and 20 pupils apiece, have also opened their doors.

They are flying the Iraqi flag as a symbol of national identity but all pro-Saddam slogans have been painted out by local townspeople and Baath propaganda stripped from the classrooms.

A new football pitch, volleyball court and schoolyard are to be built for the children by the 1st Royal Irish.

Although none of the food shops has reopened - the traders are trapped in the southern city of Basra - nomadic tomato and onion sellers have returned to the marketplace and flatbreads are being baked.

British troops are banned from spending pounds sterling or US dollars as commanders are determined the local economy should not be undermined by hard currency trading.

They have bankrolled the town's first ever bank with £1,000 worth of dinars confiscated from the Baath Party.

It is being used to pay the wages of municipal employees such as teachers and security staff and fund the town clinic which has been re-opened by a fourth year medical student after the doctor fled in the face of the Allied advance.

Next the Army will attempt to conduct a census on the main community which is dominated by oil industry workers, and its attached, much poorer and more rural village where railway workers - nicknamed the Ali Babars by townspeople - live.

'Enabling'

Law and order has been restored by the arrival of British Military Police and a regional government created by the formation of a Joint Civil-Military Commission, headed by Royal Irish second in command Major Andrew Cullen.

He said: "The influence of Baath was so great that it had filtered down to the lowest level of society and since we have destroyed Baath we must now help them build a new framework.

"We can't play god and enforce our own societal values on people, we need to enable them."

As well as helping with water and power, attached engineers are assisting with carpentry or plumbing.

They hope that soon residents will be self-sufficient.

The ambition of the townspeople and the Royal Irish is to see the oilfields re-opened and jobs restored.

With the oil will come wealth and with the wealth will come security and stability.

"We are here to see that happens," said Major Cullen.


This is pooled copy from Sarah Oliver of the Mail On Sunday, with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment in southern Iraq.

More on the bones found in Iraq:

According to the BBC, virtually all had been... sod it. I'll quote:

'These are all executions'


Hundreds of bundles of bone in strips of military uniform have been found by British soldiers at an abandoned Iraqi military base on the outskirts of the town of al-Zubayr.
Faded black-and-white photographs show corpses mutilated beyond recognition, their faces burned and swollen.

Most of the victims appear to have been executed by gunshots to the head.

Skulls, their teeth broken and missing, look out from plastic bags in unsealed hardboard coffins stacked five deep in a warehouse.

Some of the bags have split open, spilling bones and scraps of clothing onto the dirt floor.

Outside, in a courtyard, a brick wall riddled with bullets stands behind a foot-high tiled platform, with a drainage ditch running in-between.

It looks like "a purpose-built shooting gallery" says one British soldier.

Next to the courtyard, a building contains what look like cells with metal hooks hanging from racks on the ceiling - and a picture of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Some of the paperwork suggests the "makeshift morgue" was operating in 1985.

Each coffin carries an Arabic inscription and the bags have been scrawled on with marker pens.

The first British soldier into the warehouse, Captain Jack Kemp, of the 3rd Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery, said it contained more than 200 bags filled with "very old" human remains.

"It is certainly not from the recent conflict but it could be from the one before," the 40-year-old from Fraddam, near Newquay, Cornwall, added.

"We have placed it out of bounds to all personnel and will treat it as a mass grave.

"It's part of being at war - just another thing you have to deal with and get on with it.

"As the war goes on you expect to see everything."

Moments later, a younger soldier dashed over to Capt Kemp with a catalogue of photographs.

"Bloody hell," he whispered. "These are all executions. You can see the bullets - shots to the head."

Moments later the soldiers and the five western journalists who had been allowed to visit the site were hurriedly ushered out, as senior officers began to realise the possible significance of what had been discovered.

The soldiers are already asking if they could have chanced upon a death camp.

"Isn't it important for Muslims to be properly buried?" one said. "It's like a deliberate disrespect.

"Whoever these people were, they weren't very important to the people who did this."

There's photos at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2920039.stm, including one of the stacks of coffins in what looks like a warehouse.

The Americans raided Baghdad last night, and now it seems the Iraqi military's come out onto the streets. Presumably they were just hiding.

The British have found a 'makeshift morgue' containing hundreds of sets of skulls and bones, wearing scraps of military uniform. We've only been at war for two weeks, so if they really are skeletons and not just pongy, half-rotted things, they can't be casualties from the invasion. They've been left in plastic bags and unsealed hardwood coffins, and many had identity cards attached to them. No one's commenting on who they might have been, but how about:

- Anti-aircraft troops killed over the last few years by coalition planes. Dictatorships (and other governments as well, I suppose) always try to lower casualty rates, so as to keep the people on side. Hiding the bodies could at least prevent the scene of almost daily funerals.

- Mutineers from one of the various uprisings that have taken place since 1991. Maybe Saddam wanted it kept under wraps, so the bodies were never released.

- Or maybe they're victims of Stalinist purges of the military. Saddam often emulates Stalin. (After all, Stalin was a successful dictator, unlike Hitler, who failed miserably.)

The whole ID cards tagging hidden bodies thing reminds me of Cambodia.

500 visits.

Now, this is starting to get annoying. Every time I add a picture to the blog, the page goes too wide even for my 1024 width screen.

Anyone know how to resolve that? My HTML coding bites - I think the modifications I've made to this page would make a proper programmer scream.

There's a reason I only got a C at Computing A-Level.

(EDIT: Hmm, looks like I could do with making the text in the sidebar bold, or maybe a different font. Please note, my love affair with Old English Text MT has reduced in intensity, as the links page tends to go down so far no one ever reads the bottom ones.)

(EDIT 2: Looks like the formatting of line breaks and so on could do with fiddling with. Bah, it's twenty past four in the afternoon, and I want my breakfast. HTML can wait.)

No word from the Creative Writing department.

They were supposed to have decided on who got MA offers by the end of the month, and I'm hanging on here, waiting for a reply.

I've more or less come to terms (in theory) with not getting an offer. It gives me another year in Lancaster, which is good, and gives me a year in which to work and get published before I reapply the year after, which is better.

Of course, if they do give me an offer, I go all out and fly for that 2:1.

I'm wondering about running WFRP next term if I don't get an offer. I can live with a 2:2, and don't particularly want to put myself through extra stress this year (see the bit about each year being characterised by a different feeling, below) just to go for the chance of getting a 2:1 that's more or less out of reach anyway.

A few bits nicked from Acts of Gord:

Truth In Advertising

Japanese writing on signs is just sort of cool. So one day, The Gord had the painted sign in the window changed. Right below where it said "World Renowned Game Store of the Future", there was a collection of Japanese writings.

The translation: "Cute Japanese girlfriend wanted: Apply with management."

Quotation

"We would like a quote for the front page of the newspaper talking about videogame violence, and it's possible impact on society."

"Video games don't make people more violent, and I'll kill anyone who disagrees."

dramatic pause

"I don't think we can print that."

Also linked to from Shaw Island, Acts Of Gord. http://www.actsofgord.com/ (Why can't I get links to work on Blogger?)

Stupid customer stories from Gamer's Edge, in Canada.

Tom, any idea what happened to the Porn Clerk Stories? The site seems to have vanished.

A site linked from Shaw Island.

Military hamsters capture toy sales

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Sales of military toys are getting a boost from the war in Iraq. And not just the standard G.I. Joe.

Plush hamsters dressed in military garb from all four branches of the U.S. armed forces, made by Gemmy Industries, have also been selling rapidly, according to a spot check of stores.

The Irving, Texas-based maker of the singing, dancing hamsters, shipped to K-B Toys and Walgreens 10 days ago, is now air freighting them from China and also speeding up production, said spokesman Jason McCann.

Gemmy has a full line of dancing hamsters — from boxer Apollo Creed of "Rocky" fame to a handcuffed CEO in an orange jumpsuit and briefcase, presumably caught in a scandal.

It began making its armed-forces hamsters just six months ago, shipping the first to stores last month.

Military-theme computer games also are in higher demand. "There's definitely been an uptick" in military-related toys, said Jim Silver, publisher of the Toy Book, an industry monthly.

Still, given polarized views of the war, the toys have ignited controversy.

Kmart spokeswoman Abigail Jacobs said Easter baskets stuffed with toy military soldiers are "doing better in some regions than others."

A few weeks ago, a woman in a bunny suit was arrested after protesting such toys in a Kmart store in Manhattan. And a protest outside a Grass Valley, Calif., Kmart led to the store's decision not to restock the baskets with military toys, Jacobs said.

Take a look at the country where these 'patriotic' toys are being made.

Rageh Omar is still saying there isn't much of a visible military presence in Baghdad, just a few non-uniformed roadblocks.

The regime keeps telling its people there are no Americans within 100 miles of Baghdad, and predicting victory, even though the airport's just fallen.

The city is in blackout (possibly the result of a carbon particle 'blackout' bomb shortcircuiting everything, or more likely special forces ground action), and according to the coalition, special forces (probably the SAS and Delta Force) have gone into the city.

Meanwhile, the Republican Guard still seem to be outside the city, in the open, getting the shit kicked out of them by the most powerful army in the world. Streetfighting is the Iraqi regime's best chance of survival. Why the hell are they outside, exposed to air attack?

Why the fuck is there hardly anyone inside the city?

Is Saddam planning a scorched earth strategy?


(News just in - a suicide attack near Baghdad. Pregnant woman gets out of a car and starts screaming in terror at an American checkpoint. Then the car explodes, killing her, the driver and three American soldiers.)

(More news just in - the Americans have allegedly found a suspicious cache of documents and boxes of white powder just south of Baghdad. This is the area where the Iraqi chemical weapons facilities used to be/are.)

Interesting - The Iraqi government have kicked one Al-Jazeera correspondent out of Baghdad and barred another from reporting. Al-Jazeera has since said that it would stop broadcasting live from Baghdad, and instead are only broadcasting pre-recorded stuff.

(Thanks to Craig for the link to the Guardian Unlimited site from his insanely personalised blog - it changes colour, for fuck's sake!)

Weed.
Youre the baby of the drugs,
and thats okay,
because Im sure,
I could do you all day.


Which drug should you be hooked on? [now with pictures]
brought to you by Quizilla

The last question on this one was stupid - 'How many types of drugs have you done?' There was no option for 'one', so I put none.

Okay, so one of our Greeks (it turns out they're both called George, thus saving me the embarrassment of only knowing one of their names but not knowing which of them it was) set fire to the grill.

He then proceeded to use a powder extinguisher on it.

Result - not only a burnt out kitchen, but also a kitchen filled with white powder and no cooker.

Still, at least we might get a new one that knows how to cook chicken properly. (The late cooker always lied to us.) They better not take anything out of my deposit for this - it wasn't my food, and I always use foil in the oven so it doesn't leave fat everywhere.

I've just been to the Al-Jazeera website and seen the shattered skulls and stuff.

Imagine a shredded piece of light tan leather, flaps crumpled and disarrayed. Then add short black hair, and a delicate human ear. It shows you, in a way that no BBC correspondent can describe in words, exactly what war does to human beings that get caught in the way.

(The English version of the site's currently down because of hackers, so I skipped over to the Arabic version and just looked at the pictures. Full report on whether I think Al-Jazeera's impartial or not when the site's back up.)

Peter Jackson's planning to remake King Kong, filming it in New Zealand.

He's talking about building a New York street set outside Wellington and CGI-ing the rest of New York, because it's cheaper than filming in Manhattan.

No comment regarding remakes, but good luck to him.

Happy birthday, Emilie!

Gay Bear


Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Erm...

Anyway. Next quiz. -->


Romantic movie! You probably won't star in a porno
anytime soon. You seem to be really into the
whole "love" thing...romantic sex
with perfumed sheets and candles all over the
place. You're probably a hopeless romantic. You
value sex and respect your partner too much to
do anything like porn. AWWWWWW! <3


What kind of porno would you star in?
brought to you by Quizilla


Shit!

Next quiz. -->


Your Heart is Blue


What Color is Your Heart?
brought to you by Quizilla


Er... maybe I'm just in one of those moods.


avoidant


Which Personality Disorder Do You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Oh, for fuck's sake!

The death toll so far, according to each government:

Iraq: At least 589 civilian deaths, military deaths unknown
US: 50 dead (including 11 in accidents, 2 under investigation), 13 missing
UK: 25 dead (including 15 in accidents, 5 to 'friendly fire')

The Iraqi civilian death toll is almost certainly an exagerration, but even if we halve it, that's still pushing 300 dead civilians. Not too bad, considering how it could have been. Still 300 people with extremely pissed off relatives though.

But how many Iraqi soldiers are dead so far? With Republican Guard units being carpet bombed south of Baghdad, we must be well into four figures, possibly even into five figures across the entire country.

Compared to just 75 coalition casualties, it just shows how important superior technology is in warfare.

Tariq Aziz has denied that the Iraqi (or non-Iraqi) suicide bombers are not terrorists, despite what the coalition are saying.

I hate to agree with the mass-murdering fucker, but he's got a point. Iraqi militias, suicide bombers and so on are the modern day equivalent of the French Resistance. It's not like the Resistance didn't go around murdering Frenchmen who collaborated with the Germans, and they used 'underhand' tactics to kill German soldiers.

And history remembers the Resistance, like most of the WWII partisans, as valiant heroes, defending their homeland against invaders.

Although the Iraqis might be more ready to kill innocent civilians than (most of) the Resistance, they are still freedom fighters, fighting against foreign invaders. They just happen to be ruled by a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship, that's all.

I've just noticed that, whereas most of the other blogs I visit (I really must get around to updating that links list) seem to have ground to a virtual halt over the past week of holiday, mine seems to be getting more new entries than it has over the rest of its existence...

I must be bored.

Of course, a certain international dispute can take a fair portion of the blame as well.

The doctor who first alerted the world to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (an epidemic hitting various places around the world - 1500 infectees, 54 fatalities) has just died of the illness.

A tragic irony, I suppose.


Meanwhile, the Chinese government (China being the source of the epidemic) is enforcing a news blackout, to prevent a panic amongst the public. They're being roundly condemned by the WHO for not alerting anyone to the outbreak.

They're stalling giving permission to WHO doctors to enter the country.

Is it just me, or does the Chinese government overreact to everything?

Or is it perhaps something to do with the phrase that I've heard no one using?

Could this be an artificially engineered virus? Certainly, the WHO is quoted as having said, "This virus is unlike any known human or animal member of the virus family." So, has a secret (and probably illegal) Chinese bio-weapon escaped a lab and infected locals, only to be carried around the world (including to the UK) by air travellers?

It's like we're living the preamble of a post-apocalyptic novel, albeit on a far smaller scale.

Well, so much for me spending this holiday catching up with all the friends I've lost touch with due to the various stresses of Terms 1 and 2.

Obviously, a fair number of people have gone home, but I've no real idea who's still around. Liz should be out there somewhere, I should give her a shout, invite myself over to hers to watch a video or something.

If you discount the woman behind the counter in Aldcliffe Stores ("Do you have any foil?" "Up there." "Ah, thanks."), I haven't spoken to a human being since Tuesday. That's pushing five days.

Made the mistake of reading old MSN conversations again today, while trying to work out when Emilie's birthday is (April 1st, I think - I could be wrong). It just reminded me how good things used to be.

(I don't think I've explained this on the blog, although I've definitely said it face-to-face to some people:

Each year of university can be characterised by a single emotion.

First year = misery
Second year = happiness
Third year = stress)

Dammit, I miss the second year.

The US Marines near Baghdad are rationed to one meal a day until supplies reach them from Kuwait. They've been put on hold for a week until the convoys reach them.

Bush said on the radio yesterday that Saddam is in control of only 'a very small part of Iraq'. Unfortunately, this is a desert country, with a quarter of its 24m population in Baghdad, and another million in Basra, neither of which are yet under our control.

The US military are reportedly losing their hearts and minds strategy by being heavy-handed with the locals. Not bloody surprising, considering the way US troops generally behave in friendly countries, as occupiers above the law. Take the various murders, rapes and accidents in South Korea.

Meanwhile, the British, having spent thirty years in Ireland, are apparently doing a bit better, although we're not having it easy either.

Another interesting titbit from William Gibson (thanks to Tom for the link):

FEARFUL SYMMETRY?

Message in a bottle, found on the Internet:

" Initiating preflight check..."

1. Cabal of oldsters who won't listen to outside advice? Check.

2. No understanding of ethnicities of the many locals? Check.

3. National boundaries drawn in Europe, not by the locals? Check.

4. Unshakable faith in our superior technology? Check.

5. France secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.

6. Russia secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.

7. China secretly hoping we fall on our asses? Check.

8. SecDef pushing a conflict the JCS never wanted? Check.

9. Fear we'll look bad if we back down now? Check.

10. Texan in the WH? Check.

11. Land war in Asia? Check.

12. Rightists unhappy with outcome of previous war? Check.

13. Enemy easily moves in/out of neighboring countries? Check.

14. Soldiers about to be dosed with our own chemicals? Check.

15. Friendly fire problem ignored instead of solved? Check.

16. Anti-Americanism up sharply in Europe? Check.

17. B-52 bombers? Check.

18. Helicopters that clog up on the local dust? Check.

19. Infighting among the branches of the military? Check.

20. Locals that cheer us by day, hate us by night? Check.

21. Local experts ignored? Check.

22. Local politicians ignored? Check.

23. Local conflicts since before the USA has been a country? Check.

24. Against advice, Prez won't raise taxes to pay for war? Check.

25. Blue water navy ships operating in brown water? Check.

26. Use of nukes hinted at if things don't go our way? Check.

27. Unpopular war? Check.


"Vietnam II, you are cleared to taxi."

Rumsfeld's in the shit, public-image-speaking.

He insisted on a small US invasion force because he wanted a cheap war.

He overruled General Tommy Franks who wanted to delay the war until the troops denied access to Turkey had been transported to Kuwait. Now the coalition is short on manpower in Iraq.

The force is now running out of cruise missiles and precision bombs.

A senior Pentagon planner said Mr Rumsfeld wanted to "do war on the cheap" and thought precision bombing would bring victory.

"He thought he knew better [than military officials]. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the unnamed planner said.

Although it's unfortunate that the war's stalling, it's a silver lining to see Rumsfeld finally taking the flak for being incompetent and arrogant, even if he doesn't get any for being a fucking psychopath.