Internationally acclaimed novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux traveled for six months in 2001 and again after September 11 through Africa, from the Mediterranean Sea to the continent’s Cape of Good Hope.
Theroux noticed an Africa frustratingly different than the one he experienced as a Peace Corps teacher and university lecturer 40 years ago. The Africa [...]

John Diamond, Pentagon correspondent for USA Today, reports on Pentagon’s decision to step up the air campaign attacks in Iraq.
Guests:
John Diamond, Pentagon correspondent for USA Today.

In the last few days, Iraqi soldiers have posed in civilian clothes, faked surrenders and used innocent Iraqi citizens as human shields. Also, a suicide attack at a military checkpoint in Iraq has claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers.
The U.S. military has technology and weaponry far superior to that of Iraqi forces but Iraqi [...]

Charles Heyman, editor of Jane’s World Armies, gives a military analysis of today’s developments in Iraq.
Guests:
Charles Heyman, editor of Jane’s World Armies

The United Nations asked governments around the world today for $2.1 billion in emergency humanitarian aid for Iraq. Rick Augsburger of Church World Service talks about the growing Iraqi aid crisis.
Guests:
Rick Augsburger, Director of Emergency Response Programs for the Church World Service.

In the eyes of the world, Iraq is a physically deteriorated country awash in ethnic and religious hostilities. But, for thousands of years, the country between the two rivers has been a ‘cradle of civilization’ — the earliest villages, cities, writing, poetry, epic literature, temples, codified religion, armies, warfare, world economy, empires, were all born [...]

The battle of the 37th Calvary Squadron near the city of Najaf has been called the Army’s “most intense” engagement in the war in Iraq so far. Hear a first-hand account of guerilla warfare on the road north to Baghdad.
Guests:
Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor correspondent embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division.

America’s image as a superower seemed to take a hit this week in the war with Iraq. The war is taking longer than most had expected and Allies have not fallen in line as planned. Is the sheen of American hyperpower starting to wear?
According to Niall Ferguson, professor of financial history at New York University, [...]

The U.S. military began building up forces in the northern front today, dropping 1,000 paratroopers to secure a key airfield in the country’s Kurdish controlled zone. A fresh report from the Boston Globe’s Charles Sennott on the war in the North.
Guests:
Charles Sennott, correspondent, The Boston Globe

Fundamental to the U.S. strategy in the war in Iraq is the assumption that beyond the circle of Saddam’s core troops and enforcers, the American invasion will be received as an overwhelming mission of mercy.
It’s a terrible “what if,” but it is haunting the American conversation on war right now. What if the beleaguered population [...]

Gears have shifted in the recent hours and days of the war in Iraq. It appears that this could be a far longer conflict than the Bush administration envisioned and suggested. Time could prove a crucial factor in this war, introducing a number of elements which may complicate U.S. war plans.
Anthony Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke [...]

There’s two sides to every story. Christian Science Monitor’s Danna Harman says that the citizens in Cairo, Egypt are seeing different images from the Iraqi battlefields than the West is. According to Harman, the war coverage in Egypt is primarily focused on the civilian casualties and the toll the war is having on the Iraqi [...]

News organizations have embedded reporters on the battlefield. Live briefings are coming in by the hour. The war coverage is continuous. But are Americans well-served by the U.S. media’s coverage of Gulf War II?
Syracuse University professor Bob Thompson says that the large volume of the coverage does not necessarily mean the incoming information is depicting [...]

John Diamond, correspondent for USA Today, gives us the latest news from the Pentagon.
Guests:
John Diamond, Pentagon correspondent, USA Today.

Thousands of chemical suits discovered in an Iraqi hospital have renewed fears that Saddam Hussein will unleash weapons of mass destruction against U.S. troops. How will the coalition forces respond?
Rocco Casagrande, former Chief of the Biological Analysis Lab for the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), believes that the possibility of Iraq using [...]

In central Iraq, about 50 to 100 miles south of Baghdad, the helicopters of the 101st Airborne Division stayed grounded in the midst of a vicious standstorm. Jim Dwyer, correspondent for The New York Times, gives an update report.
Guests:
Jim Dwyer, Correspondent embedded with the 101st Airborne Division for The New York Times.

In today’s press briefings at the Pentagon and White House, there was a sharp change in the media’s tone of questioning. After days of basking in the bright glow of bombs over Bagdhad and the roar of advancing U.S. troops, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer were suddenly, deeply, in the [...]

In two separate briefings today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer appeared exasperated by questions about progress in the War against Iraq. Talk of an impending humanitarian crisis was roundly dismissed. Is it time for tough questions?
Guests:
Samer Shehata, Assistant Professor of Politics at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, [...]

Sandstorms today slowed the pace of U.S. and British troops to Baghdad. But in spite of fears of urban warfare and civilian casualties, taking the capital city remains a primary military objective.
Anthony Shadid, correspondent for The Washington Post, reports that the mood on the streets of Baghdad is somber. The Iraqi media is appealing [...]

As U.S. troops march north toward Baghdad, the 3rd Infantry Division troops have been spearheading efforts to secure the capital city. Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald correspondent embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, provides a fresh report from the Iraqi desert where the troops are located.
Guests:
Jules Crittenden, correspondent embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division for [...]

Charles Heyman, Editor for Jane’s World Armies, provides military analysis of the day’s developments in Iraq.
Guests:
Charles Heyman, Editor for Jane’s World Armies.

President Bush has asked Congress for 74.7 billion for the war in Iraq, related foreign aid and other anti-terrorism measures. How will the cost of this war affect the already struggling American economy, American jobs and businesses?
Alan Sinai, chief global economist for Primark Decision Economics, Inc., says that the full cost of war, which he [...]

President Bush is expected to release today how much money he’ll ask Congress to cover the war with Iraq including dometic security and humanitarian aid. Tonight we crunch the numbers.
Guests:
Gail Chaddock, Congressional Reporter for the Christian Science Monitor

At a meeting in Cairo, the Arab League calls for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. and British forces from Iraq. A look at the sentiment in the Arab world about the war.
Guests:
Rami Khouri, Editor of the Daily Star, an English language newspaper in Beirut
Ned Walker, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington and former [...]

“Progress toward our objectives has been rapid and in some cases dramatic,” said General Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command. His upbeat tone contrasted with fiery words from Saddam, who in a televised address rallied his own troops and people.
With coalition forces closing in on Baghdad, we’re taking a hard look at [...]

As massive air strikes shook Baghdad today, the 101st Airborne Division braces for the next 48 hours of aerial and subsequent ground attacks. Washington Post’s Rick Atkinson reports from the headquarters of the 101st Airborne at Camp New Jersey, Kuwait.
Guests:
Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, The Washington Post, embedded with the 101st Airborne Division and [...]

Air raid campaigns have become the main modern warfare military strategy. The high technology-low casualty formula of “shock and awe” aerial attacks allow soldiers to inflict harm without being in harm’s way. But, are these Blitzkriegs more of a theater spectacle than an effective warfare method?
Professor Robert Pape does not believe that ’shock & awe’ [...]

The U.S.-led coalition forces have finally launched the much anticipated ‘Shock and Awe’ aerial campaign against Iraq. Missiles hit the main palace complex of President Saddam Hussein on the bank of the Tigris River, government buildings, and the district housing the Iraqi Information Ministry and television.
Click the “Listen” link above to hear analysis of the [...]

For Iraqis who have fled the ruthless regime of Saddam Hussein, the images of the war may bring both relief and fear.
For Falah Al-Hamdani, a businessman who fled Iraq for Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War and moved to the U.S. in 1993, the war is bringing joy and giving rise to hopes that the [...]

A patrol of light armored vehicles from the First Marine Division destroyed two Iraqi armored personnel carriers earlier today. Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times gives us a frontline report from the Kuwait-Iraq border.
Guests:
Tony Perry, Correspondent with The Los Angeles Times also embedded with the 1st Marine Division.

Today was a first full day of war in Iraq. Pentagon sources reported that U.S. Marines crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq and that the U.S. military has launched air strikes against targets in Baghdad. There are also reports that Iraqi forces have set as many as four oil wells ablaze in southern Iraq, [...]

Chicago Tribune reporter Kirsten Scharnberg describes how living with the U.S. troops in Kuwait has affected the way she sees the human side of warfare. She describes her own fears of what may happen, her developing relationships with the soldiers around her, and her own commitment to cover the war. She says she won’t allow [...]

We’ve seen war in the movies, we’ve read about it in books and newspapers, watched reports on TV, but one cannot truly know what war is like unless you’ve been in it.
Now, as the final minutes tick by to the end of Bush’s deadline and war is days, hours, maybe minutes away, On Point gets [...]

It’s an hour past the deadline Washington set for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq. An early morning report from US Central Command in Doha, Qatar.
Guests:
Alan Sipress, correspondent, The Washington Post

USA Today Pentagon reporter John Diamond joins us live with the latest developments from the Pentagon.
Guests:
John Diamond, Pentagon Reporter for USA Today.

With U.S. troops about to invade his country and hunt him down, how will Saddam fight back at this final hour?
Carla Ann Robbins suggests that Saddam Hussein could follow one of two options: he could try to draw first blood, starting the war using strikes that would cause visible U.S. casualties and so affect U.S. [...]

As the world braces for war, Tony Blair makes his final case for an Iraqi invasion to the British Parliament. The debate illuminates a world view unlike Washington’s.
In Tony Blair’s speech opening today’s debate on the Iraq crisis in the House of Commons, he said:
“…the world has to learn the lesson all over again that [...]

The 101st Airborne Division in Northern Kuwait awaits the order to strike. As the start of war draws near, a report from the frontlines.
Guests:
Jim Dwyer, correspondent embedded with the 101st Division, The New York Times

With America on the cusp of war, a look at the peace movement at home and abroad. Does war mean that it has failed?
Guests:
Randall Forsberg, Executive Director of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies
David Corn, Washington Editor of the Nation
Mary Kaldor, Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Center for the Study of [...]

President Bush addressed the nation on Iraq, giving Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country or face invasion. Click the “Listen” link above to hear Bush’s speech and expert analysis from On Point’s guests, William Kristol, Tad Oelstrom and Stephen Van Evera.
President Bush gave his warning to Saddam Hussein and urged [...]

What to expect in the first hours of war. Sizing up the military plan.
Guests:

Years ago, prominent Washington hawk William Kristol called for regime change in Iraq. Now, it looks like he’s getting his wish. Tonight is monumental. The President speaks to the nation about war. William Kristol lays out his view of America’s real mission in the Middle East.
Guests:
William Kristol, Editor and Founder of “The Weekly Standard,” [...]

At first blush, you’d think that Celtic and African music are as far apart rhythmically and harmonically as they are geographically.
Think about the pipe and fiddle heavy Chieftains juxtaposed against the tribal beats of the West African talking drums.
But upon closer inspection, Simon Emmerson, guitarist of the group Afro Celts came to believe that the [...]

Travel writer turned fiction writer, Pico Iyer explores the familiar theme of loneliness in his new novel “Abandon.” It’s an unlikely clash of characters in a mystical romance of the Persian tradition, unfolding in the California sunshine.
Guests:
Pico Iyer, writer and author of several books including “Video Night in Kathhmandu” and “The Global Soul” [...]

President Bush will hold emergency talks with British and Spanish leaders on Sunday amid dimplomatic deadlock at the U.N. over their plans for disarming Iraq. Maura Reynolds, White House correspondent with the Los Angeles Times has the latest information.
Guests:
Maura Reynolds, White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times

Firsthand reports from the front-in-waiting. We talk with war correspondents around the Gulf, from the deserts of Kuwait to the deck of the USS Lincoln, for the latest on troops, morale, sand storms, and readiness. Voices from the edge of war.
Guests:
Carol Williams, correspondent embedded on the USS Lincoln, The Los Angeles Times
Scott Calvert, [...]