War Began

MADRID -- Sixty years ago the Spanish civil war began. The argument in Spain this summer is whether what one writer calls "the willed amnesia" of the nation about that war should continue.Francisco Ayala, who fought in the government's forces in the war, wrote in the newspaper El Pais that "a kind of general armistice, tacit and reciprocal," has existed, which can be seen "as an expression of generalized good sense, contrasting happily and admirably with the stupidity which in the past launched a fratricidal conflict."

If nothing else comes out of the Iraq war, it should banish the concept of "nation-building" from our language and our minds. "The track record of nation-building and Wilsonian grandiosity ought to give anyone pause," as was said in this column before the Iraq war began. We can now add Iraq to the list of disasters. The very existence of Iraq is a result of Woodrow Wilson's grandiose ideas about "the right of self-determination of peoples," which led to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire by the allied powers after World War I. Some of the most bitter and intractable conflicts of our time have arisen in nations carved out of the Ottoman Empire, whether in the Balkans or the Middle East.

MOSCOW - A Russian news Web site has published a report claiming that two former top Soviet military officers visited Iraq less than two weeks before the start of war to advise the Iraqi military leadership. The report, posted Wednesday on the www.gazeta.ru Internet site, showed three photographs of the two former Soviet generals receiving an award from Iraq's defense minister, Sultan Hashem Ahmed. Though the precise nature of the visit was unclear, one of the generals, Vladislav A. Achalov, a former Soviet deputy defense minister, acknowledged in a transcript of a brief telephone interview posted on the site that it had taken place shortly before the war. In the interview, Achalov declined to detail the visit, saying only that he "did not go to drink coffee," and that he and his colleague were "with the minister" less than 10 days before the war began.

WASHINGTON -- Emboldened by the Democratic takeover of Congress and shrinking public support for the Iraq war, anti-war groups are planning what they hope will be a huge protest tomorrow on the National Mall. Organizers said they aim to put pressure on both the White House and Congress to end the war. "The message will be `Mr. President, bring our troops home,'" said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat who is one of several politicians, activists and actors scheduled to speak in Washington.

DALLAS -- F-117 Stealth fighters slip through the radar to catch Baghdad unawares.An A-10 "Warthog" keeps Iraqi troops at bay while helicopters rescue a downed American pilot.B-52s pound Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard. American Patriot missiles knock Scuds out of the sky. Abrams M-1 battle tanks move to the front for the long-awaited land battle.Can war toys be far behind?In fact, peace still prevails in most area toy stores. But the gulf war has arrived in hobby shops.According to toy shop managers, sales of toy planes, tanks, guns and military action figures are about the same as they were before the war.But in hobby shops the arms race is on, as model builders sweep the shelves bare of F-14s, F-15s, Apache helicopters, Abrams M-1 tanks and other military hardware.

Walter Mathers came to the Harundale Library Saturday, decked out in his Confederate grey, accurately portraying a staff captain from the Civil War.The Glen Burnie resident also brought confederate script, vintage field glasses, maps and guidebooks, all part of a history he and other Civil War buffs try to re-create, both in modern-day classrooms and on former battlefields."

If nothing else comes out of the Iraq war, it should banish the concept of "nation-building" from our language and our minds. "The track record of nation-building and Wilsonian grandiosity ought to give anyone pause," as was said in this column before the Iraq war began. We can now add Iraq to the list of disasters. The very existence of Iraq is a result of Woodrow Wilson's grandiose ideas about "the right of self-determination of peoples," which led to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire by the allied powers after World War I. Some of the most bitter and intractable conflicts of our time have arisen in nations carved out of the Ottoman Empire, whether in the Balkans or the Middle East.

WASHINGTON -- "I personally think that if there is war, it will be a short one that will last no more than five days."Oops.That errant forecast was made by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye on Dec. 19, a few weeks before the Persian Gulf war began.Inouye, D-Hawaii is chairman of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee and a presumed military expert. So his mistaken prediction stands out. But many other reputedly knowledgeable individuals, from military officials to politicians to journalists, guessed wrong before the battle began.

DOVER, Del. -- As morning broke -- brisk, violet and bright -- Albert G. Haddad Sr., retired military man, arrived at Dover Air Force Base to collect the body of his only son.Haddad wore a borrowed Air Force uniform. He had shaved his beard. Both steps were taken so that he could serve as military escort and accompany his son's casket to Lewisville, Texas, for burial this week."We traveled together for years," Haddad, of Menlo Park, Calif., said Monday of Al Jr., who was born at Dover's base hospital.

Forget pictures.After the 30-second announcement at 8:26 p.m. Saturday that the ground war had started, television didn't even have any real information to report.Defense Secretary Dick Cheney shut down regular briefings and pool pictures for the first 12 hours after the ground war began. (Despite the announcement of a 48-hour blackout, however, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf held a surprise briefing in Saudi Arabia yesterday morning.)The initial news blackout did not stop the broadcast networks from going straight through prime-time Saturday night in an effort to compete with CNN's wall-to-wall coverage.

Republicans had a good time with John Kerry's botched joke on military service and the Iraq war, and they'll try to keep this blip of a story alive through Tuesday's election, even though the stack of Iraq stories before and after Kerry's gaffe should be of far greater concern to those of us who still think -- and those of us who still believe our votes make a difference. Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, blew a zinger aimed at President Bush, and his "joke" ended up sounding like a sneer at the men and women in our all-volunteer military.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major helicopter and armored operation north of Baghdad yesterday, targeting insurgent forces and weapons caches, in what Pentagon officials described as the largest air assault since the war began three years ago. About 1,500 soldiers, including elements of the U.S. 101st Air Assault Division and the Iraqi army's 4th Division, swept into an area northeast of Samarra, the city where the bombing of a Shiite...

CHICAGO -- Should we stay in Iraq? That is a question Americans are asking themselves, and increasingly the division is not between "yes" and "no" but between "no" and "you've got to be kidding." A recent CBS News poll found that 50 percent of Americans think we should leave "as soon as possible," with only 43 percent saying we should stay the course. Republicans, of course, refuse to consider the possibility that their president has made a hopeless mess of the war. And while many Democrats say it was a mistake to go into Iraq, very few have the nerve to say it's also a mistake to stay.

Bolster the role of moderates in Indonesia What a pleasure to see The Sun's thoughtful column on the complexities of the political situation in Aceh ("From crisis, opportunity," Opinion * Commentary, Jan. 12). There are forces within the Indonesian government that promote a peaceful settlement to the Aceh problem. But they are confronted by the hard-line military elements who would rather keep all foreign observers out of the province. It is particularly important that the U.S. government bolster the position of Indonesia's moderate voices by ensuring that aid delivery is not diverted and misused by the military but is delivered to its intended recipients.

IN COUNTLESS VILLAGES across France there stands - not far from where the old men play boules, or from the tourist-dappled cafes, in the shade of stately trees and hemmed in by rabid traffic - a statue of a soldier atop a monument on which is inscribed: MORT A DEVOIR. As the old joke has it, "Died from Homework." No - despite what generations of American high school French teachers have taught their students, this devoir means "duty," not "assignment." The French are serious about commemorating their staggering losses in World War I. It's curious, in that light, that the two countries perhaps most profoundly changed by the war remember it barely - in America's case - or not at all - in Russia's.

Imagine that you are the parent, or the brother or sister, or the wife, husband or child of a young man or woman killed in Iraq - one of the 138 who died in the march on Baghdad, or one of the 384 who have died there since May 1, when major combat was pronounced over. Imagine, for that matter, that your loved one is among the almost 3,000 men and women who have been wounded in Iraq since the war began - many of whom will forever bear their horrible injuries as a reminder of where they were and why. The why of it was torn apart last week.

Army Spc.MELISSA RATHBUN-NEALYGrand Rapids, Mich.Was the only female allied soldier listed as missing in action. She is 20, divorced, with no children, and is described by friends as strong and assertive. An ROTC cadet in high school, she joined the military shortly after graduation and is with the 233rd Transportation Company based at Fort Bliss, Texas. She hasbeen in Saudi Arabia since October.Army Spc.DAVID LOCKETTFort Bliss, TexasIs 23, and a transportation specialist. He and Specialist Rathbun-Nealy apparently were delivering equipment to positions near the Kuwaiti border in Saudi Arabia when they were captured by Iraqi troops Jan. 30.Navy Lt.JEFFREY NORTON ZAUNCherry Hill, N.J.Is 28 and was one of the seven allied prisoners of war shown on Iraqi television in the early days of the war. Bloodied and bruised in the broadcast, he showed no outward sign of injury yesterday.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- U.S. support for the Persian Gulf war remains strong as the conflict enters its second week. The latest Gallup Poll of 834 Americans conducted Wednesday and Thursday nights shows that a week of fighting and media coverage have solidified, rather than dissipated, support for U.S. involvement and for President Bush.More than eight out of 10 Americans continue to support the decision to take military action against Iraq. Fewer than two out of 10 (16 percent) say it is a mistake -- unchanged from last week, and still about one-half the number who said it was a mistake immediately before the war began.

CRAWFORD, Texas - The Bush administration was determined to oust Saddam Hussein long before the Sept. 11 attacks, former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill told CBS News in an interview to be aired tonight. "From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," O'Neill said in the interview with 60 Minutes. The interview is being broadcast amid publicity for a new book by journalist Ron Suskind called The Price of Loyalty, for which O'Neill was a primary source.

In the entrance hall of St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church in Abingdon, there sits a book where parishioners are encouraged to write the names of family members or acquaintances who have been sent to Iraq. So far, the list holds 135 names. Perhaps because of this, Monsignor G. Michael Schleupner of St. Francis de Sales is experiencing the war with Iraq on a more personal level than many. Several members of his congregation, included in the names written into the church's book, are no longer familiar sights at his Sunday morning services.