"Lt Col McCourt (British Army) said he had never seen such resolve among US forces. 'What I have noticed is that the American service personnel have a strong sense of purpose - a stronger sense of purpose than I have known before. They feel they have got a proper mission to accomplish here and they will do it.'"

�There was a machine designed for shredding plastic. Men were dropped into it and we were again made to watch. Sometimes they went in head first and died quickly. Sometimes they went in feet first and died screaming. It was horrible. I saw 30 people die like this. Their remains would be placed in plastic bags and we were told they would be used as fish food . . . on one occasion, I saw Qusay [President Saddam Hussein�s youngest son] personally supervise these murders.�

"Israa Neema also loves her homeland and plans to help rebuild it. She is 22-years-old and fled Iraq with her family more than 10 years ago. 'I endured and went through a lot of pain and sorrow in my life while leaving my homeland, Iraq,' she said. 'Now, I am a successful citizen of this country [American citizen], I am working for a company as a manager. Now that I've done everything I needed for myself, I am looking forward to going back and basically helping people rebuild their lives.' Ms. Neema supports a possible war with Iraq, and says she is actually suspicious of countries that call for no intervention. 'It gets me angry because they do not see the picture of what is going on," she added. 'I think a lot of those countries are concerned more about the oil and the Iraqi refineries than people themselves.'"

"On Wednesday, a headline on CNN.com read "Iraqi 'secret surrender' negotiations under way." Think of this as surrender by cell phone. Both the U.S. military leadership and the CIA have the cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of much of the Iraqi command. This latter group appears quite unwilling to die for Saddam Hussein. They may even be sympathetic to American goals of liberating the Iraqi citizenry and working toward some kind of democratically organized representative government of the Iraqi people."

"'Women and children are sold into slavery so people can get food,' she added. Furthermore, the women spoke of aunts, uncles and friends rounded up and taken away by Saddam's guards without cause and with no clue as to their fate. Gilly counts two aunts, three cousins and two uncles among those missing. She also notes that Saddam's forces have razed 45,000 Kurdish villages, including her own ancestral village."

"Some soldiers in the regular Iraqi army recently attempted to surrender to U.S. Special Forces on the Kuwait border. The American contingent sent them back, saying they couldn't yet accept surrender since the war had not officially begun. An isolated anecdote? Or a harbinger of things to come?"

"UP TO 30,000 Iraqi conscripts have fled to escape an invasion, allied commanders claimed last night."

"Messages fly in through couriers and spies to the Kurdish political leaders, commanders, local peshmerga, and taxi drivers from Iraqi officers saying, 'We will not fight; we will surrender with the first American attack.' One Kurdish leader has a white piece of paper with the names of Iraqi commanders listed in blue script who have foretold their surrender. 'We know of two units that will surrender. That is 60,000 troops,' said one Kurdish leader. Said another, 'We have links with senior members who don't trust Saddam anymore. Their salaries are very poor. They all have to work as taxi drivers. We have daily talks with them. They have no supplies. They've lost all courage.'"

"'Through the 35 years, Saddam Hussein has created corruption all over the Iraqi society, whether it is financially, socially or psychologically,' he said. 'So, I think most of the Iraqi young generation who were born here [in the United States], or at least have been here for a long time, support overthrowing Saddam and his regime.'"

"The Iraqi people deserve to be lifted from insecurity and tyranny, and freed to determine for themselves the future of their country. We envisage a unified Iraq with its territorial integrity respected. All the Iraqi people � its rich mix of Sunni and Shiite Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and all others � should enjoy freedom, prosperity, and equality in a united country. We will support the Iraqi people's aspirations for a representative government that upholds human rights and the rule of law as cornerstones of democracy."