Claudia met an Iraqi Kurdish friend today. When he calls his mother in Kirkuk, she cries. They have a car ready to go – but they don’t know where. In the north, Turks. In the south, Iraqis. In the East, the Iranian border is closed, plus there are some Worse-Than-Taliban fanatic villages nearby. Nobody does business anymore, everybody is saving to buy food. Most have fled into the hills. The war seems to be going badly for the US. I heard that the US shot down a British helicopter. I heard that the US had to retreat from Basra and only managed to get out because they called in air support, and the air support just killed everything in sight. Must have been a lot like *Black Hawk Down*. In a month temperatures will rise above 45°C. Claudia’s friend says that the Kurds will not move, because in Episode I they did rise against Saddam when the US and GB invited them to revolt. But then the US and GB left and Saddam killed each and every one of the fools that had moved. Plus the Baath officials are ready to fight to their death – after all, if they loose, their own people will kill them anyway. So resistance will be tough. Claudia’s friend also told her about the bombardment – 320 bombs in all, up to 6 at a time. And these bombs don’t just hit Saddam and empty palaces. The Swiss newspaper also carried a story about the bunkers Swiss engineers built for Saddam. True masterpieces. Not at all easy to destroy. Claudia’s friend believes that if the US doesn’t manage to win the war in a month or less, they will suffer a second Vietnam. The Americans just don’t know what to expect down there. Perhaps they compare Saddam to Hitler, and the Iraqis to the Germans or Italians, and their march on Baghdad to some triumphant liberation of a besieged city. But things might turn out different.