The Battle for Baghdad is Underway

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Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thanks for watching us tonight.  The battle for Baghdad is underway.  That's the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

But one aside for just a moment.  Sometimes divine providence shows up, and this has happened in The Los Angeles Times situation.  You may know that we believe that newspaper has slanted its coverage of the Iraq war in an outrageous way.

Well, today on the front page of the Times, its management had to apologize because one of its war photographers doctored a picture that also appeared on the front page of the Times.  The photograph was distorted to make it look like a coalition soldier was pointing his weapon at civilians when, in reality, he was not.  The Los Angeles Times has fired that photographer, but I'll say it again.  There's something very wrong at that newspaper.

Now let's get to the battle.  According to our sources at the Pentagon, one of the six Iraqi divisions that are actually fighting, most of them are now out of commission.

The Baghdad Division has been completely destroyed.  12,000 men are incapacitated.  The Medina Division is down a 20 percent strength, again, according to the Pentagon.  The Adnan Division, Infantry and Heavy Armor, is about 50 percent and under heavy bombardment right now.  The al Nida is under siege by the Marines and "getting hit hard." The Nebuchadnezzar Division is trying to reinforce those units under fire but has not been able to.  And finally, the Hammurabi  Division is believed to be the only Republican Guard outfit not under fire at the moment.  It is guarding Saddam and the thugs inside Baghdad.

Coalition casualties have been light so far.  The latest number we have is 26 Americans killed in direct combat.  That number will, of course, rise.

And that's The Memo.

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