"President Bush waves at a fundraiser for the Republican candidate for the Mississippi governorship, Haley Barbour, at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Sept. 12, 2003"

Taken from yahoo.news

The guys at misleader.org started "a daily chronicles of Bush distortion"

Some news from the conspiracy-guys at The Insider and a few facts about the involvement of secret intelligence in the Bahá'í Faith.

"US spy confirms Dr Kelly's death 'was not suicide'

Dr David Kelly was befriended by Mrs Mai Pederson, an undercover US intelligence agent.

Dr Kelly, a leading weapons expert, was found dead by police in the woods near his home after being named as the insider who spoke to journalists about the lies told by the UK and US governments to justify the invasion of Iraq. Mrs Pederson was "one of the very first people to know that Dr Kelly's body had been found."

As a US military intelligence spy, Master Sergeant Mai Pederson was trained to attach to people identified as targets, befriend them, gain their trust, infiltrate their life, and then exploit them as directed by her superiors. She was a specialist in seducing male targets."

from a story in The Insider

"There is also a lot of popular protest against efforts to increase the concentration of the media in fewer and fewer hands so as to prevent even the limited diversity that exists. The books that you mention ["Weapons of Mass Deception" and "Stupid White Men"] are just two of the many. The books themselves, the critical literature - I've written on it too- aren't an alternative to the corporate media but rather a part of an on-going effort to construct alternatives or to compel them to function in a more honest fashion." Noam Chomsky in an interview for Radio Havana worthwhile reading

"There was a good reason that Time magazine described the coverage of the war on Iraq as "militainment," and there is a good reason that the Bush Administration is turning to Hollywood to embellish the president's declining popularity. Their latest preemptive strike takes form of a movie packaged to remake the historical record on the 9/11 attacks and reelect Bush at the same time.

With the networks all downplaying the real-world events planned for the second anniversary of 9/11, it is not accidental that a made-for-TV movie is likely to draw most of our attention this time around. This is the story behind the making of a cable movie titled "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," a well-made and insidiously persuasive docu-drama that airs Sunday Sept. 7th on Showtime, a movie channel owned by Viacom, the company that runs MTV, VH-1 Comedy Channel, Nickelodeon and so much more."

taken from a very very good story on the fictional 9-11-movie by Danny Schechter of MediaChannel.org

"The American soldier Jessica Lynch, who was rescued by US special forces after being taken prisoner in Iraq, has signed a $1m book deal with publisher Alfred A Knopf.

I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story will be co-written by former New York Times reporter Rick Bragg and detail her journey from rural West Virginia to becoming a national heroine. "

Full story at bbc news

Whew, a national heroine!

You know what? Heroes don't exist. It's a propaganda-lie from the 19th century which still works in the US. As long as you got a hero, nobody is gonna look at the facts, right?

But great power doesn't mean responsibility at all. It simply means being able to fuck with everyone else.

You're just some propaganda bitch, Miss Lynch! You agreed to play a mayor role in that fake rescue-mission Jerry Bruckheimer's cameraguy shot at a hospital in Bhagdad where doctors from Iraq tried to save you after your own people almost shot you.

You probably didn't get it, Miss Lynch. But you're just some small fry from "Rural West Virginia" who has never been anywhere else and you're probably scared to death to go to a foreign country again. Stay at home, eat greasy hamburgers until you die and talk about your High School-years forever. Just leave us alone with "your story". They gave you a shitload of money for "your story" which isn't yours at all because someone in Hollywood made it up. History going down the drain. Miss Lynch, you are part of the problem. Go back to your shitty little village and count your bloody money.

Do you know why they gave you all that money? DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND IT, BITCH? Does it remind you of the smell of napalm at least? Do you remember pain? Do you remember why you went to war? Can you hear the children of Iraq scream at night, Miss Heroine? Does it make you proud to kill for a bunch of rich oil-magnats running out of time?

->On rescuing Private Lynch and forgetting Rachel Corrie by Naomi Klein in "The Guardian ->The Truth About the Saving of Private Jessica Lynch by John Kampfner at Al-Jazeerah.info

Here is a message from Mr. Illuminati himself:

"After all, why should I remain the ONLY nutcase in California who ain't running," RAW says. My party, the Guns and Dope Party, invites extremists of both right and left to unite behind our shared goals of:

1. Get those pointy-headed Washington bureaucrats off our backs and off our fronts too!

2. Guns for everybody who wants them; no guns for those who don't want them

3. Drugs for everybody who wants them; no drugs for those who don't want them

4. Freedom of choice, free love,free speech, free Internet and free beer

5. California secession -- Keep the anti-gun and anti-dope fanatics on the Eastern side of the Rockies

6. Lotsa wild parties every night by gun-toting dopers

7. Animal protection -- Support your right to keep and arm bears More position papers will follow; we know at least 69 good positions."

Vote for Wilson

"The Myth: Iraqis, prior to occupation, lived in little beige tents set up on the sides of little dirt roads all over Baghdad. The men and boys would ride to school on their camels, donkeys and goats. These schools were larger versions of the home units and for every 100 students, there was one turban-wearing teacher who taught the boys rudimentary math (to count the flock) and reading. Girls and women sat at home, in black burkas, making bread and taking care of 10-12 children." Cory Doctorow at boingboing.net

This blog by a woman from Baghdad is already getting a lot of traffic, but it's well worth waiting to get a better perspective of the ongoing war Found while hanging out at William Gibson's.

The current prices for dinar notes from Iraq are hard to tell. The funny thing is that the US had to print extra-bills with the face of Saddam Hussein in the US.

"The expectation is that the new Iraqi authority will design and print a new currency, which will be widely circulated and as reputable as the "Swiss dinar" still in use in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq." from "Devaluation of dinar plagues postwar Iraq" in the Washington Times

"New banknotes, budget for Iraq" in the Herald Sun. Washington has for weeks been flooding Iraq with more than $1.3 million worth of small-denomination U.S. currency in an attempt to stabilize the economy, pay workers and wean people from the nearly worthless "Saddams" until a new currency can be introduced.

Real Change has all the dirty facts on every canidate. They also host a nice collection of quotes by King George II.

Das 20.Jahrhundert wird eingemacht. Deckel zu und schnell abrechnen. Passend dazu eine Infoseite zur Historie der Rote Armee Fraktion. Dit reicht für massig Magisterarbeiten und so manchen Wischi Waschi-Artikel zum nächsten RAF-Jubiläum.

"World War II did not neatly end with Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945. At its height the Japanese Empire was more than 20 million square miles of land and sea. Soldiers in isolated regions fought on for years after the surrender some unaware the war had ended, other refusing to believe. Some hide in the jungles alone, others fought in groups and continued to make attacks and conduct guerilla warfare. These men were called Japanese Holdouts, or Stragglers and their stories are some of the most fascinating human interest stories of the 20th Century. " that's one fascinating story over here.

"To judge from the excited build-up, Saddam Hussein will be killed very soon. Once his location is identified, the spectacle of his death can soon be orchestrated. To have the greatest impact, perhaps it will be televised in all time zones on a weekday, avoiding the competition of weekend sports. There must be burnt offerings and a triumphal revelation of the corpse. For an insecure America, this killing will be a "ritual of blood," a "compact of fellowship" – terms used by West Indian sociologist Orlando Patterson in the context of ritual lynchings in the Old South." full story by Tom Hayden on AlterNet

According to the Wall Street Journal (print edition) from July the 16t, "Georgia said Sea Island has been chosen to host next year's G-8 summit, in line with recent venues from which protesters can be kept easily."

Protesters are buzzing already - Read more

Careful: The FB-eye may be watching. The all-new US-Stasi is everywhere and neighbours spy on each other. Don't read a liberal paper in public. Don't carry around a piece of paper. Paper can be dangerous to your health. Read the tale of fellow weblogger Marc Schultz. That's what I call one fucked up scenario!

Look here! It's for real, my friends! America is loosing it....

48 hours ago, Dr. David Kelly went missing. Kelly has been named by various sources as the insider who broke the story which the BBC ran a few days ago: weapons inspectors in Iraq have been "massaged" to manipulate public opinion. Ok, we all know that, but it's hard to prove. Dr.Kelly seemed to be willing to talk to the media. But then again "Dr Kelly denied being the BBC's main source for a story claiming Downing Street had "#'sexed up' a dossier about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction."

What a thriller! Politics have gone "high concept"! Read the full story at bbc.com

"Falsehoods ranging from exaggeration to plain untruth were used to make the case for war. More lies are being used in the aftermath." full story in The Independent

"Two of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior aides will go to Washington for separate talks this week. National Security Advisor Efraim Halevy will discuss the regional implications of the Iraq war and the fall of the Ba'ath regime, and the prime minister's bureau chief Dov Weisglass will bring the White House Israel's comments on the "road map" plan for a peace settlement.

Israel will suggest that the United States also take care of Iran and Syria because of their support for terror and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Israel will point out the support of Syria and Iran for Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers an important target in the war against international terrorism."

quoted from a story by Aluf Benn in the Haaretz Daily

"The United States has pledged to tackle the Syrian-backed Hizbollah group in the next phase of its 'war on terror' in a move which could threaten military action against President Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus.

The move is part of Washington's efforts to persuade Israel to support a new peace settlement with the Palestinians. Washington has promised Israel that it will take 'all effective action' to cut off Syria's support for Hizbollah - implying a military strike if necessary, sources in the Bush administration have told The Observer . "

-Politicians can have their own weblogs too. Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, explains the world to us and what he had for lunch. I'd love to read what George W.Bush thinks about movies...

-"The extensive history of the first Gulf War by William M. Arkin draws on lots of declassified documents and inside information to present previously unknown facts about that conflict. It was published in installments on the Website of the magazine Stars and Stripes (a privately-owned magazine, not the US military newspaper of the same name). At some point the Website disappeared and with it, unfortunately, went this important piece of work. A full copy had survived in the Internet Archive until just a week ago. Now that it has completely vanished from the Net, The Memory Hole is extremely pleased to resurrect it.

"Under the Patriot Act, librarians and booksellers are required to open their records to the FBI so the feds can trace a person's Internet activities and the books he's been reading and buying. Since these investigations are conducted in secret, the librarians and booksellers are bound under a gag order not to divulge one word of what the FBI is after, nor, indeed, even mention that they have received a visit from the FBI. Librarians fear criminal prosecution should they talk, although the law actually does not specify penalties.

As a result, nobody knows exactly what's going on. A recent Freedom of Information request to the Justice Department asking it to divulge the number of FBI library visits has been denied by the government. Still, bits and pieces of information leak out. A survey conducted by the University of Illinois last October, sent to 1,505 directors of 5,094 U.S. public libraries, showed that the FBI was busy making visits." ~~ James Ridgeway, "Throwing the Book at Us" in the Village Voice

"Apocalypse Soon - Nutjob Milius hired by Pentagon

John Milius is the macho, gun-obsessed, 
right-winger who wrote the script for 
Apocalypse Now. So it makes perfect sense 
that his current job is... writing 
"future war scenarios" for the Pentagon!

Some John Milius facts:
1. He wrote the line "Go ahead, make my day" 
for Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry.

2. He was the inspiration for the John Goodman 
character in The Big Lebowski 

3. Co-wrote Conan the Barbarian with famous 
lefty Oliver Stone

4. Was rejected by the army because of asthma

5. Insisted that part of his payment for writing
Jeremiah Johnson be in antique weapons."

stolen from popbitch

Well, what kind of "future war scenarios"? I started a little research and I found all these interesting army-backup-pages. You should do the same! The Pentagon is spending a million dollars a year on Hollywood consultants.

"The Pentagon agreed to fund the StoryDrive Engine project at Paramount for about $800,000, and now owns the system. Writers and producers were hired. Working alongside people designing the "Star Trek" Web site (www.startrek.com) in an office on the Paramount lot, Mr. Singer's team spent 18 months in 1998 and 1999 writing and producing.

The chief story writer was Larry Tuch, who has written episodes of "Columbo" and was a "clue writer" on the video game "Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?" He sketched out various regional crisis scenarios that would take place in 2008: a drought in Mexico that triggers a huge influx of Mexicans into the U.S. Southwest; a Persian Gulf crisis involving the Sixth Fleet; car bombings at U.S. embassies in Tokyo and Russia; and rising tensions between Russia and NATO."

from Paramount Simulation Uses Scripts,Technology to Test Handling of Crisis by John Lipmann, The Wall Street Journal

Why are all the articles at least one year old? Some are from 1999, 2000 or 2001. No recent entries. Do we have that "future war scenario" already?

-Coming to an Army Near You by Dana Calvo, Los Angeles Times. -Pentagon Looks For High-Tech Help From Film by Andrew Pollack, New York Times, August 18, 1999 -Dramatische Algorithmen-Hollywood und das Pentagon arbeiten eng zusammen, nicht nur ideologisch, sondern vor allem auf technischem Gebiet. Simulation ist alles! von Dietmar Kammerer in der taz

"The Captain America complex is a bipolar form of civil religion that periodically blesses crusades against evil enemies, often adding the stamp of biblical authority, in the pursuit of peace. Since Captain America must always take the law into his own hands to rid the world of evil, this civil religion produces acute conflicts between the impulse for holy crusades and a commitment to the rule of law.

The Captain America complex was evident in our World War I experience, when President Wilson demonized Germany's Kaiser in "the fight to make the world safe for democracy" while working for the League of Nations that America refused to join. The complex was also apparent during the Cold War, when we worked to build treaty organizations like NATO and SEATO, at the same time that we were fighting secret wars that LBJ and Nixon hid from the American people. The signs of this bipolar disorder are manifest now in fervent U.S. appeals for other nations to build international institutions that will help us fight terrorists—at the very moment that we are withdrawing from treaties that would compel U.S. accountability to international rules.

(...)

The Appeal of Superheroism for American Leaders

While we do not know about President Bush's viewing experience with these exciting films, we know something about his liking for superheroes from an incident this year in Germany. To accompany a very dismissive "Masters of the Universe" article on the Bush administration's crusade against evil, Germany's news magazine Der Spiegel created a satirical cover depicting each national security player in the role of a zealous destroyer from American popular culture. George W. Bush, surrounded by his advisers, received a muscular Rambo body holding an automatic weapon and ammunition belts.

Daniel Coats, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, visited Der Spiegel's editorial offices—not to protest the caricature or the article's viewpoint about reckless unilateralism—but to report that "the president was flattered," whereupon he ordered thirty-three poster-size renditions of the cover for the White House. Each policy maker on the cover reportedly wanted a copy."

Read the full article by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders attacked Democratic presidential contender John Kerry on Thursday for saying "regime change" was needed in not just Iraq but also the White House, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the Massachusetts senator.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Republican leader Tom DeLay and Republican Party Chairman Marc Racicot said Kerry's remarks in the crucial presidential primary state of New Hampshire on Wednesday undercut the troops and President Bush's role as commander in chief.

At a campaign stop in Peterborough, Kerry had said relations with our allies had become so damaged in the run-up to the war in Iraq that only a new president could repair them."

full story by John Whitesides in the Washington Post

If you stand for peace and justice, you can sign a petition and have your name displayed with loads of V.I.P.s

"Gazeta.Ru has obtained sensational evidence proving the involvement of a group of former Soviet generals in preparing the Iraqi army for war against the United States. The generals in question refused to discuss their degree of involvement, but admitted that just before the beginning of the US-led campaign against Iraq they received state awards from the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "

Sounds like the plot of some stupid action movie!

full story

These guys in Washington have sure read The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley, but this war is real and it's not some intellectual funsport like Alan Moore dabbling in psycho-geography. There's an Army of Propaganda out there. Reality is conquered by Hollywood-imagery.

"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Four Corners looks at the propaganda war: how US, British and Australian military forces - and the Iraqis - employ sophisticated spin to control the flow of information and images. " Here are some excerpts from the transcript of the excellent TV-program which aired on ABC a few days ago.

"JONATHAN HOLMES, 'FOUR CORNERS' REPORTER/NARRATOR:: Late last year, in the run-up to the war, Defence Force spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan went to media organisations with a deal that could have seen them virtually surrender control over what they reported. This draft document was prepared with the assistance of law firm Clayton Utz. Before any journalist could be accredited, the Defence Minister had to be advised. Journalists would be required "not to disclose information "other than in accordance with operational security briefings "and the operational security guidance "provided by the Commonwealth". They would also "abide by all Force Public Information Centre rules "which will be given from time to time". The proposed deal appears to have been quietly dropped in the face of media resistance. Peter La Franchi is shocked it was even suggested.

PETER LA FRANCHI, DEFENCE JOURNALIST: But the clauses in that document, for example, would prevent an Australian journalist revealing something say, like, the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. It prohibits you are not allowed to identify operations people, anything that Defence says is what you must report. That's not freedom of the press at all. That is a dictatorship of the media.

(...)

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, 'NEWSWEEK' MAGAZINE: Look, television viewers don't like to think. That's not the point of watching television. It's to share the experience. It's to be bathed in the moment. It's not about thinking. And the US go...knows that and they exploit it.

JONATHAN HOLMES: But the Pentagon has another audience in mind for this bombardment of sound and image. Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, the most gung-ho supporter of the war on Iraq, is well aware of it.

(...)

REPORTER: Do you think it's worth it? US SOLDIER: Yeah, I... They say we're fighting for something. I don't know.

(...)

DONALD RUMSFELD: What we are seeing is not the war in Iraq - what we're seeing are slices of the war in Iraq, we're seeing that particularised perspective that that reporter or that commentator or that television camera happens to be able to see at that moment, and it is not what's taking place. What you see IS taking place, to be sure, but it is one slice, and it is the totality of that that is what this war is about and being made up of.

JONATHAN HOLMES: Which apparently suited the Secretary of Defense just fine. In the spanking new Hollywood- designed briefing centre in Qatar, there were no briefings at all for more than two days.

NICHOLAS WITCHELL: Nick, if you're looking for precise information, sadly this Central Command, where I am, is not the place to look for it from. Now, I suspect that the American view is that the media can be used in a sense as one of their weapons - anyone listening to the many different reports that the media are making will be left, perhaps, in a slightly confused state. Anything obviously that comes from here, from Central Command, will be taken as authoritative, and at the moment nothing of any significance or substance is coming from here.

BBC NEWSREADER: In that case, Nick, let's go to the eyewitnesses on the ground. Thanks for joining us from Central Command headquarters with no news of anything.

GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, COMMANDER OF COALITION FORCES: Let me begin by saying that, uh...my heart and the prayers of this coalition go out to the families of those who have already made the ultimate sacrifice.

JONATHAN HOLMES: General Tommy Franks finally gave his first briefing on Saturday night, Australian time - 2.5 days after the start of the war.

GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS: The initiation of combat operations - we refer to that as 'D-day'. The introduction of Special Operations Forces - we refer to that as 'S-day'.

JONATHAN HOLMES: His disgruntled audience didn't feel the gung-ho rhetoric, lightly larded with information, had been worth the wait. If the Pentagon wanted journalists in Doha to be underemployed, it apparently wanted them out of Baghdad altogether.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: For their own safety, all foreign nationals, including journalists and inspectors, should leave Iraq immediately.

(...)

PHILLIP KNIGHTLEY: The big difference between Iraq and the Gulf War has been the arrival not only of al-Jazeera, Arab television, but other Arab television channels as well. And they're in place now in Iraq with lots and lots of crew and as good as and as slick and as efficient as CNN or Fox News. And they're going to be competing to tell the truth. Now, how the American military plans to control the Arab television stations, I don't know.

JONATHAN HOLMES: Networks like al-Jazeera have helped to publicise Saddam's claim to be a champion of the Arab world. He's found plenty of support elsewhere in the Middle East. But how much does he really command in the country he has tyrannised? It's a question that reporters, faced with endless declarations of loyalty for the leader, would love to have honestly answered.

(...)

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Extensive field investigation and document analysis have failed to uncover any evidence that Iraq intended to use these 81mm tubes for any project other than the reverse engineering of rockets.

JONATHAN HOLMES: The claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore from the African country of Niger was groundless too, said ElBaradei in the same briefing - it had been based on forged documents.

MOHAMED ELBARADEI: Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that these documents, which form the basis for the report of recent uranium transaction between Iraq and Niger, are, in fact, not authentic. We have, therefore, concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded.

DAVID ALBRIGHT: I think the Bush Administration is not using even what we'd call standard practices to assess intelligence information. It's politicised the whole process, and it's seeking evidence that supports its claim, and dismissing evidence that contradicts their political goals and claims, and they're willing to punish people who dissent. So I think it's a... in my mind, it's scandalous.

JONATHAN HOLMES: By March 7, the world's media were obsessed with the last-minute manoeuvring over a Security Council resolution. The Atomic Energy Agency's conclusion that Iraq has no current nuclear weapons program got almost no publicity at all. But America is still trying to persuade the world that there are proven links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. It was a subject on which Colin Powell spent much time on February 5, and had new things to say. He showed slides of what he claimed was a "poison and explosives training camp" in the Kurdish-controlled area of north-east Iraq. It was part, he said, of a terrorist network run by al-Qaeda associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

COLIN POWELL: Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in northern Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's controlled Iraq. But Baghdad has an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organisation Ansar al-Islam that controls this corner of Iraq. In 2000, this agent offered al-Qaeda safe haven in the region. After we swept al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, some of its members accepted this safe haven. They remain there today.

ANDREW WILKIE, FORMER ANALYST, OFFICE OF NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS: I got quite angry, I recall, when I saw the telecast. It just didn't make sense to me that if there is this link, why is the poisons factory located in an area that is clearly outside of Saddam's control? I mean, it may as well not be in Iraq. So I don't know that this so-called agent that was referred to changes the bottom line here, and that is that there's no hard evidence of any active cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaeda. And I don't believe Colin Powell's presentation established any link. All it established is that in somewhere outside of Saddam's control, there is an al-Qaeda presence.

JONATHAN HOLMES: When British journalists visited the so-called "poison camp" just four days after Colin Powell's presentation, they found nothing but "a dilapidated collection of concrete outbuildings "at the foot of a grassy sloping hill." Tragically, Ansar al-Islam is now back in the news. On Friday night, local time, its base was attacked by American aircraft and cruise missiles and then overwhelmed by Kurdish militia. Next day, a suicide bomber killed ABC cameraman Paul Moran as he was filming outside the base.

full transcript

America's fine Department of Homeland Security ran a logo-contest. Here are the entries and here are the finalists. It's all fun, games and drawing with your crayons, isn't ist?

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a very good special on the war.

Ha, ha, check this out: "Silicon Valley staff help paralyse SF with swarm tech"

I have to stop ranting. I sound like some 17 years old anti-american kid hanging out in front of Berlin's Brandenburger Gate to get fucked. They're all out to socialize. I was there. Left the bunker because I was fed up with war-TV. "Clockwork Orange" is on (uncut version! Thanks for arte-tv!) I taped it anyway. A malenki bit of ultra-violence going on, droogies.

So, I went out to see what's happening with the anti-global kids of Berlin and it was fun. They're having a party out there. Global Intelligence is having a new kickstart. Attac lacks the grand new strategy, but everyone loves them. Fucking hippies! The public is so "anti-war" in Berlin, it makes me cry.

The people putting up the Love Parade think about having a revival under the banner of a Peace parade. Cash from Chaos. Nothing has changed though...

Hey, Mr.Bush, you're trying to shed a lot of blood while trying to take over a city with more than a million citizens. You either present the head of Hussein on live-TV now or you better get the fuck out of there as soon as possible. Nobody can take over a big city like Bhagdad just like that. This is not just a matter of wasting a lot of money on PR. Remember Hitler going to Stalingrad?

Thousands of people will die because some dictator wasn't listening to his generals and other people with some real military knowledge. A handful of nerds playing "Command & Conquer-The General Edition". They produced these games themselves and they believe in them. Managers believing in management. The ultimate final of the New Economy is close at hand!