From reports in this morning’s New York Times, elements of the United States Army and Marines today entered the Red Zone beginning the Battle for Baghdad.
Southeast of Baghdad, the First Marine Expeditionary Force have engaged and routed the Baghdad Division of the Republican Guard and seized the strategic town of Kut within 100 miles of the Iraqi capitol. Embeds within these troops now report the American force is within 40 miles of Baghdad.
More to the south, combined elements of the Army’s 3rd Infantry and Marine 1st Divisions assisted by Allied warplanes and Apache fighters attacked the Medina Division of the Republican Guard allowing some American elements to cross the Tigris River.
Slow and dangerous will be ever more the watchwords as specialized teams begin the painstaking work of removing explosives from bridges along the Baghdad approach while the main force continues its inexorable push. Tedious, complex and exhausting work. Our boys will need all our prayers on this day as reports indicate they are “racing forward”.
Washington’s antics continue to provoke harrumphs. Reports have it that this particularly unharmonious Presidential cabinet is presently finding the time to count unhatched chickens with more infighting over the composition of the post Saddam Iraqi government. Unlike the infinite juicy slices that come off a Budget pie the slices off this Iraqi pie may not be that generous and thus the Cabinet/lobby “food” fight.

The MIT Technology Review offers six Iraq War II observations:
First GPS War-Last time soldiers brought their own personal devices to orient in the desert while this time men and weapons are GPS’ed.
Facial Recognition-The world waited while computers scanned Saddam’s face…silly waste of time.
Oil Well Fires-Expected the worst and it didn’t happen…credit to Special Ops and Psy Ops.
Sand Blizzard-Equipment survival during and after a severe storm is a technical triumph.
Absence of Chemical Weapons-Tricky and unreliable…Saddam believes chem Fear will keep US from Baghdad.
North Korea-Imagine bunker-prepping Kim Jong Il has been a regular CNN viewer.

Speaking of pie, wasn't I?

Pie with Bybee pitcher and McCoy bowl

Used a recipe in the fantastic April issue of Gourmet yesterday afternoon…Coconut Cream Tart or Pie as well call them here in Kentucky! Oh my God! Prep and assembly was a cinch and the pie itself, bliss. The magic ingrediant Cocoa Lopez forms a cream that rests on a crust of crushed shortbread and coconut. Very rich. Highly recommend.

Also, I took possession of William Gibson’s new book Pattern Recognition and I’m hoping Mr. Gibson will divert my war weary mind.

- posted by Sean @ 2:55 PM