How I expirienced the beginning of the war in iraq

I browsed some news sites as usual, I do so on a daily basis after I get up and read the following article on cnn (sucks):

DOHA, Qatar (CNN) — Despite resistance from Iraqi units and rising coalition casualties, U.S. military officials expressed satisfaction Monday with the pace of the war effort.
“Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic,” said Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command. U.S. military officials showcased images of successful airstrikes on Iraqi military and leadership targets and said coalition ground forces have made significant gains in southern Iraq. U.S., British and Australian Special Operations forces operating in small, mobile teams are “about their business, from the left to the right and top to bottom” in Iraq, Franks said. Franks said there is “nothing at all unexpected” about the “sporadic resistance” encountered so far, adding that coalition forces will continue to “fight this on our terms.” The tenor of the U.S. Central Command briefing contrasted with a defiant speech by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein aired hours earlier Monday on Iraqi television. “After they underestimated you, you Iraqis, now they’ve come on land; this attempt is our chance to incur losses on them,” Saddam said. “They are in a dilemma; they are in trouble now. Hate them and strike them.” It was not immediately clear whether the speech was broadcast live or had been taped. Saddam talked about current battles and referred to “setbacks” for his “enemies.” (Full story) Fighting continued Monday in the southeastern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military said at least 10 Marines died in what a senior U.S. officer called “the sharpest engagement of the war thus far.” Up to 16 troops were reported missing after Sunday’s fighting. (Full story) About 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital, elements of the Republican Guard, the strongest and most loyal arm of the Iraqi military, fought off a fierce assault by U.S. Apache attack helicopters. The U.S. Army’s V Corps, 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, targeted Iraq’s 2nd Armored Brigade of the elite Medina Division before dawn Monday, targeting positions between the cities of Karbala and Al Hillah. One U.S. pilot described the situation as a “hornet’s nest,” with the Iraqis peppering the helicopters with small arms and anti-aircraft fire from “all sides.” Most pilots said they sustained 15 to 20 rounds, including a rocket-propelled grenade in one instance. (Full story) Iraqi TV showed video of what appeared to be a downed Apache helicopter, intact and upright, reporting that it went down near Karbala. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Iraqi villagers shot down two Apaches. U.S. Central Command confirmed that one Apache is missing in Iraq but had no details on the crew or the reported second missing helicopter. (Full story) Thirty-eight U.S. and British military personnel have been confirmed killed since the Iraqi conflict began. (Coalition casualties) Other developments? U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Henry Pete Osman, in charge of military coordination and liaison for Iraq’s northern front, arrived in the area Monday, signaling the much-anticipated opening of a second front. More than 200 U.S. forces are now in northern Iraq. Until recently, some 20 to 30 Special Operations forces were in the region. The development came amid discussions between U.S. and Turkish officials on how to deal with northern Iraq. (Full story) ? The first group of wounded U.S. troops arrived Monday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Their arrival was broadcast live, showing 12 injured people being carried off a C-141 cargo plane by stretcher and placed onto waiting medical evacuation buses. (Full story) ? President Bush plans to have lunch Monday with the military’s top officers to discuss the war in Iraq and also brief key members of Congress on an emergency war budget request officials said will be for roughly $75 billion. Bush will visit the Pentagon on Tuesday and U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, on Wednesday. (Full story) ? Three fresh explosions rocked Baghdad around 2:30 p.m. (6:30 a.m. EST) Monday. The blasts came more than 11 hours after witnesses reported a round of airstrikes in the Iraqi capital that hit an Iraqi air force building and other buildings southeast of the city. ? U.S. Patriot missile batteries Monday shot down three Iraqi ballistic missiles in Kuwaiti airspace, a U.S. military source said. The first injured U.S. troops arrive at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. ? Kuwait firefighters in south Rumaylah succeeded Monday in extinguishing their first Iraqi oil well set ablaze by Iraqi forces, according to Kuwait fire authorities. ? The Australian navy has been working with the United States to clear Umm Qasr in preparation for humanitarian aid shipments, the commander of Australian forces in the Middle East said Monday. U.S. Marines have captured the regional headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the key port city, seizing documents, a weapons cache and other material. (Full story) ? The Iraqi information minister said Monday that at least 62 civilians had died, and many more have been wounded, in the coalition invasion. CNN has been unable to confirm these reports. (Full story) ? A steady rumbling of bombs fell on Iraqi front-line positions near Chamchamal in northern Iraq. Sources from Pesh Murga, the militia for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said Iraqi soldiers armed with heavy machine guns moved injured comrades from a ridge. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is one of the two main ruling Kurdish parties in northern Iraq. ? An unmanned, remote-controlled U.S. Air Force Predator drone spotted and destroyed a radar-guided, anti-aircraft artillery piece in southern Iraq on Saturday, the Pentagon reported Sunday — the first time a Predator has fired in the war. ? Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based, Arabic-language satellite network, broadcast pictures Sunday of U.S. soldiers recorded by Iraqi television. Iraqi TV said the soldiers were killed in action or captured near Nasiriya on the Euphrates River. The video showed five captured U.S. soldiers, who said their names, as well as the bodies of four soldiers, some of whom had gunshot wounds to their foreheads. CNN Correspondents Jason Bellini, Karl Penhaul, Nic Robertson, Walter Rodgers, Brent Sadler, Martin Savidge, Kevin Sites, Barbara Starr and Alessio Vinci contributed to this report. EDITOR’S NOTE: CNN’s policy is to not report information that puts operational security at risk.

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