Stardate 20030205.1003

(On Screen): The two tapes [update: three tapes] that Powell played for the UNSC were of Republican Guard officers talking to one another by phone. Tricky, tricky...

When the war starts, one of the primary targets is going to be military communications. The Iraqi army's command structure is highly centralized, with any officer preferring to defer decisions upward rather than make them themselves. (For the last ten years, any officer who seemed decisive and motivated tended to disappear because he was feared to be a coup threat.) So if military communications can be knocked out, that will drastically decrease the combat power of their force because much of it will be immobilized for lack of orders.

But if we can't do that, then second best is to make them doubt the security of their communications, possibly deciding to use human couriers for orders instead. Which means that while this may or may not betray some technical means of intercept, it may have the effect of reducing Iraqi military responsiveness come D-Day. Nicely done!

Update: I've now finished reading the transcript of Powell's presentation to the UNSC (which Kent sent me) and it is pretty damning. It was a good job. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of reaction there is to it. Iraq's reaction is predictable (and telegraphed): it's all lies. He just made allegations and didn't actually prove anything. But what will others say?

Update: I can't watch this kind of thing on TV; it's excruciating for me. I didn't watch the SOTU, either. But Ray has actually been watching it and writes:

I watched the Powell presentation to the UN, and am currently watching the other delegates speak.

Amazing, simply amazing. Seems that a prerequisite for being a delegate is to have your brains sucked out and saved in a jar somewhere. Ditto backbone.

In statement after statement, they say that after seeing all the evidence that Powell presented that Saddam continues to hide and evade the inspectors, and that Saddam is actively hiding his ongoing current WMD activity, that they are firmly demanding that-------the inspectors should continue to inspect.

One after another, they say "These facts show the urgent necessity for........inspecting some more."

Disgusting. If nothing else Dubya's strategy here has totally unmasked the UN as having NO value and no backbone. Now when the heck is he gonna take the next logical step and say "Thank you for your opinions, and if we ever want to make empty statements we'll be sure to give you a call. But until then, step aside, us adults have work to do."

OTOH, this also shows that when/if we ever want to do anything, the UN will never have the balls to even call for us to stop.

When do we get to the part where we make them try to appease us???

Please, oh please, I'm praying that the final speaker will be Powell, and he'll say, "We heard you loud and clear, the inspections will continue. The 101st Airboard and 10th Mountain are beginning the next round of inspections right now."

Soon, soon...

(By the way, I did look at CNN briefly and there was a subtitle which said that Powell's full presentation was on the State Department web site. MSNBC didn't reproduce the pictures, so I'd like to look at this, but I can't find it. Does anyone have a URL? Update: CNN's got em! Update: Arkat sends this pointer to the State Department's own page, which is now up.)