Days I do not want to forget.

Day 7 the 26th of march 2003.

Bombing resumed since dawn and continued for hours with almost no stop at all. The skies were so red which made the lights that shined from the houses look blue. It seems that the bad whether is going to hinder the operations for a while which made me depressed today. It’s going to take longer than we hope. This forced me and my father to re-check our stores of food, water and fuel. We replaced the stored water which we had used every container we had to store it in, for cleaning purposes, taking advantage of the water supply that hasn’t been affected yet, since we don’t know how long it’ll last. We started reconsidering some of our plans of how to deal with the worse.

This delay is making rumors spread again about how serious the Americans are. People seem to be so desperate, which I think why they are discouraged with this unfortunate delay in operations. We are even hearing about a secret deal between Saddam and the US in which he gives up the southern oil wells in return for keeping his power and control over the central areas of Iraq. This idea shocks me with its naivety and I didn’t even bother to explain to the guy who told me about it, except giving him one hint. I told him that this is much more than the oil fields and I disagree with him on what he says. The man said” Saddam lost the battle and he’s giving what they want from him” and I replied “you said it yourself; Saddam has lost the battle, so why do you think a super power, the only superpower, will negotiate with a defeated dictator and accept his terms when she can have whatever she want?” he shook his head and said “I don’t know! But Saddam doesn’t give up this easy and he’s ready to offer anything in return for staying in power” I told him that the issue had been settled before (the 1st bullet was fired) and negotiation was possible only before the war has begun. He said, “Then what is this deal that people talk about?” I told him that it’s most probably that the regime is behind it, to show us that the issue is not settled yet, so they are trying to tell us, “don’t start anything foolish”

Today the major media focused on the battle that took near Najjaf and showed some pictures from the scene. I think it’s the first time the Fedayeen and the Ba’athists try to take an aggressive move, only to be slaughtered by the coalition forces and nearly a thousand of the attackers or at least hundreds got killed according to the news so far. This shows how stupid they are. They went to fight the American army with buses and cars carrying light arms!! I heard that the commander of the southern area ordered this attack and that he was killed too. He was trying to please his master!

Another good news is that American forces has landed in the northern area in considerable numbers, and I think this should mean that another front is about to be opened.

Another battle took place near Nassireah and this time the coalition forces faced regular army soldiers. The battle also led to the death and surrender of hundreds of the regime army. However it’s not the major war the media are trying to show it to the world; so far it’s just a few hundreds fighting sporadically without order and without a previously made plan. Till now the battlefield has shown no real activity by the army Saddam was boasting about.

The bombing was also heavy today and one of the targets was the center of the Iraqi satellite TV channel that is located so near to our neighborhood. The explosion was the worst I heard since the beginning of the war. The blast was huge and the sky was lightened almost entirely for a few moments. There were 3 missiles, but one of them was different. We knew that because the explosion didn’t shake the doors and windows as usual, but instead it was the ground that shook beneath our feet in a strange way. I think this is one of what they named (bunker buster) those missiles designed to penetrate the ground and explode below the target or inside it if it was a shelter. The explosion was very strange and not familiar at all; a thrill that comes from the ground to go through your body via your feet.

Ali called me and said laughing "come on and watch this!” the picture of the TV reporter “Nihad Najeeb” had frozen in a funny deviated way. It didn’t disappear or move, he just stood there for hours and every time we turn the TV to the Iraqi channel, and see that it’s still the same, we burst out laughing. Their filthy mouth was silenced forever in a disgracing manner.

Tonight we talked in our regular meeting about what we had heard in the morning. Can it really be a limited operation!? We all agreed that it was a stupid question and that it’s all over (yet we asked it!! I think the reason is that we are so edgy and anxious to see the end).

-By Mohammed.