<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4522.1800" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#00ffff> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">US special forces have been operating inside Iraq for more than a month in what amounts to the initial phase of the ground war, according to a story in today's Washington Post. </SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">They've been reconnoitring Iraqi positions and oil fields, preparing air strips, encouraging defections, contacting Kurdish and Shiite militias, and establishing communications networks so the US army can quickly seize up to 75% of Iraqi territory, leaving only a small area from Baghdad north to Tikrit for a full-scale air and ground assault. Regular air strikes by US and British warplanes in the “no-fly” zones have already been well publicized. </SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">The advance units are in now because, unlike the 1991 Gulf War, military planners don't want the ground assault to wait until after a prolonged air offensive; they want a swift ground occupation of most of the country to undercut antiwar sentiment, and to secure major oil fields.</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">You can access the Washington Post site, or I've posted the article on <A href="http://www.supportingfacts.com">www.supportingfacts.com</A></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>