Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani – March 23, 2003

On the fourth day of the war, it appears that the situation has become more difficult for the attackers. With extensive propaganda, they claim that they have advanced 240 kilometers into Iraqi territory. They have reached 70 kilometers south of Najaf on the route toward Baghdad, without having consolidated their rear positions, and at any moment there is a possibility of them being cut off and encircled. Along their route, they have been unable—or unwilling—to capture any cities or important centers, because wherever they attempt to take control, they face Iraqi defensive forces. Interestingly, they have announced that they will capture Baghdad on Tuesday—day after tomorrow—which is nothing more than psychological warfare, and after that date it will have the opposite effect, like the rest of their lies.

On the other hand, opponents of the war have also begun psychological warfare in another form; for example, they claim that a dispute has emerged between Britain and the United States and that Britain wants to withdraw from the war. Although a team of American representatives, headed by Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney, has come to Jordan to negotiate an end to the war with Iraq, this has been denied by the United States. Iranian media are being accused of spreading rumors, as if they themselves do not do the same.

Worse than this, today an American soldier attacked a tent of commanders of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait with a grenade, killing one person and seriously injuring 16 others, in protest against U.S. war policy. He was arrested and confessed.

A British Tornado aircraft was shot down in the Persian Gulf by friendly fire from U.S. artillery. Five other aircraft were also downed, and their pilots were captured in the reed beds around the Tigris in Baghdad. The United States has completely denied any aircraft losses, while Iraqi television broadcast disturbing images of dead American soldiers and prisoners of war.

Resistance continues around Basra, Nasiriyah, Faw, and Umm Qasr.

Anti-war protests around the world are intensifying, and unprecedented insults are being directed at George W. Bush and the United States, with terms such as “criminal gang,” “Hitler of our time,” “bloodsucker,” “invader,” “idiot,” “cowboy,” and “oil-for-blood.” Perhaps in all history, no country or president has been insulted on such a massive scale.

Iraq and Iran have called on the United Nations to take action to stop the war. Iran has also protested to the United States and the United Kingdom over missiles landing on Iranian territory.