Front Page: Iraq, March 25, 2003

The following is a compilation of today's newspaper reports about the Iraq crisis from around the country and around the world. It is just a sampling of different perspectives, designed to offer additional context into the conflict. Compiled by CBSNews.com's Andrew Cohen.

From around the country:

Sarah Treffinger of the Cleveland Plain Dealer offered this local perspective on the fighting: "A Bedford Heights [Ohio] soldier with an Army maintenance unit is missing in the war with Iraq, his father said last night. The Rev. Tandy Sloan said the Army told him about 10:30 p.m. Sunday that his 19-year-old son, Pvt. Brandon Sloan, was last heard from in Kuwait. As of Sunday, a total of 12 soldiers from Brandon's group, the 507th Maintenance Company, were unaccounted for and seven of them were presumed dead. U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones said yesterday that Sloan was described as missing after an Army supply convoy was ambushed over the weekend. Rev. Sloan said his son, who worked in logistical control, was deployed a few weeks ago. He joined the Army about a year ago, after withdrawing from Bedford High School in his senior year, his father said. 'He had a great sense of purpose,' Rev. Sloan said of his son's decision to join the Army. 'He felt that he wanted to do more for himself. He looked at [the Army] as a way to develop himself. Serving his country was also a consideration.' Rev. Sloan said Brandon, a former high school football player, is 'the type of son anybody would be proud to have.'"

Arnold Hamilton of the Dallas Morning News filed this report: "They are faces of war, frightened and tearful moms and dads, brothers and sisters thrust Monday into the American consciousness as they await the fate of their loved ones held captive or missing in a battle raging half a world away. From Texas to Kansas, New Mexico to West Virginia, the families of missing U.S. troops and POWs expressed similar hopes and fears, praying publicly for a swift end to the 6-day-old war — and an even swifter return of those who fell into enemy hands. The mother of a captured New Mexico soldier, for one, issued a public plea to President Bush to 'please do something for my son.' The mother of an American POW from South Texas called on an even higher power: 'God,' she said, 'is very powerful. We believe in him and that he will bring him back home.' And the half brother of a captive Kansas soldier urged the U.S. to finish the war "as fast as possible" so his brother can come home. At least two more American POWs were being held by the Iraqis on Monday after their helicopter was downed, bringing the total held by Iraqis to at least seven. 'We will press on and do everything we can to bring them home safely,' Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal told reporters at the Pentagon."

John Daniszewski of the Los Angeles Times offered this report on the effect of Coalition bombing on Iraq's citizens: "Saman Atef was finishing a late breakfast Monday when he heard a long, whining whoosh. Before he had time to ponder the noise, three of his neighbors' houses exploded in a rain of bricks, glass and dust. In the instant the bomb or missile hit, four people were killed and 23 were injured, Atef said, and the people of his working-class neighborhood of northern Baghdad counted one more reason to feel angry with the United States. Just before the midday attack, a robust-looking President Saddam Hussein had appeared on state television in military uniform and exhorted Iraqis to attack the U.S. and British enemy. 'Cut their throats and even their fingers,' Hussein urged. 'Strike them and strike evil so that evil will be defeated.' The U.S. war strategy has counted in part on separating the people of Iraq from the government of Hussein. But the deaths and injuries from misdirected or errant bombs, or from shrapnel and fragments that spray into nearby homes even when the munitions find their intended target, are making more and more people believe that the United States is heedless of the Iraqi public."

Chuck Haga of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune provided this perspective on POWs: "Don Hartley scans his Prior Lake garden for emerging rhubarb and sniffs the spring air, calculating when he can plant spinach. Soon he'll begin to untangle tomato cages. Already, 2,000 half-inch seedlings inside his house promise an early bounty of greens. By summer's end, he'll have taken another 5,000 pounds of food to area food shelves, just as he has every year for 20 years. What does it mean to be a prisoner of war? For Hartley, 83, it meant starving for five months in German prison camps during World War II. It meant being the man in charge of ladling out watery cabbage soup to other prisoners and having to take some back with a spoon if he didn't make it stretch to every waiting tin cup. It meant dreaming of candy and hot oatmeal, waiting for liberation and knowing that his life, if spared, would have to mean something. When he retired in 1984, he found his meaning in the half-acre garden, in raising food that might spare some people from knowing what he knows about the course of emaciation. He prays that these new American POWs, captured by Iraqi forces on Sunday and Monday, will not be held nearly so long. 'The first days are hard,' he said. 'They're going to wonder how this happened. They're going to wonder what the treatment is going to be. They're probably imagining the worst.' If he could talk with them, he would urge them to banish negative thoughts. 'Keep telling yourself, "I am going to get out alive. I am going to see my relatives again." Walk the straight-and-narrow and do what you're told. Bide your time, and believe they're coming to liberate you. Because they are.'"

John Kelly of the Washington Post filed this report about watching the war at home: "John French Allen was at a Northern Virginia Irish bar on a date Wednesday when he learned that bombs were falling on Baghdad. 'I ended the date quickly, because I was like, "Dude, I gotta get home," said the 32-year-old Adams Morgan [neighborhood] resident. And home is where he's pretty much stayed since. The musician and computer programmer estimates that, between grazing war reports among the cable news channels and surfing the Web for information, he's slept about 14 hours since the war with Iraq started. 'It's just such a rare opportunity that we get to see something so transparent and huge,' said Allen — and to see it unfold in near real-time. Although not everyone may show the same devotion to the media's round-the-clock coverage of the war, many are trying to keep up with news from the front. Their reasons vary, from feeling it's their civic duty as Americans to wanting to witness a war they oppose."

From around the world:

Britain's Guardian newspaper offered this look at how Europeans are following the war: "The Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera has seen its European subscriber numbers double since the start of the war in Iraq amid huge demand for an alternative to Western media coverage. The controversial broadcaster said it has signed up 4 million new subscribers in Europe since last Wednesday, doubling its viewership on the Continent. 'We had 4 million subscribers in Europe and I would estimate we have added another 4 million over the last week,' said Alan Marmion, Al-Jazeera's media consultant. 'There are a lot of Arabic speakers in Europe — around 4 million in France alone. Canal Plus have even given us a transponder just so they could broadcast us. It's not just because of the war — we were already pushing out our distribution before the war began. But the fact that we provide alternative images means people are coming to us rather than us going to them.' Al-Jazeera had around 35 million Arabic-speaking viewers before the start of the war in Iraq but the vast majority of these were in the Arabic world, where it is free. Outside the Middle East, only 10 million people had access to the network, but this figure has swollen since the outbreak of hostilities last week. Al-Jazeera has been given greater freedom than western broadcasters in Iraq, with as many as eight camera crews operating outside the confines of the military although it does also have some journalists embedded with the allied forces."

The Jordan (Amman) Times reported this: "His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday reiterated that there are no warplanes using Jordanian airspace to strike at Iraq. At a meeting with Senate President Zeid Rifai and several senators at the Royal Court, the King said Jordan's stand is crystal clear in this regard. 'We do not allow any country to use our airspace to launch strikes against Iraq,' he stressed. 'Our airspace is still open to civilian flights, a fact that refutes claims that military aircraft are using it,' the King told the senators during a meeting to discuss developments in the U.S.-British war against Jordan's eastern neighbour. He rejected as 'completely false' reports of alleged U.S. plans to move troops to Jordan that were poised to use Turkey as a launchpad for strikes against Iraq… For his part, Rifai highlighted the humanitarian responsibility of Jordan towards the Iraqi people to help them overcome the impact of the war. He said that top priority should be given to efforts to fortify the internal front. Senator Abdur-Ra'uf S. Rawabdeh said Jordanians are pained by the tragic situations in both the Palestinian lands and Iraq, and pointed to the King's efforts to avert the war in Iraq through peaceful means."

Karachi, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper offered this: "Pakistan has extended no facilities to the United States-led military action in Iraq war, foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said here at Monday's news briefing and affirmed that Pakistan believed 'regime change' should be by the people of Iraq themselves. The weekly news briefing was dominated by questions on the Iraq war from Pakistani and Arab media representatives who appeared to suggest that Pakistan had been underplaying the Iraq war and seemed to disregard the popular national sentiment against the U.S.-led attack. When pressed to say whether Pakistan accepted the U.S.-UK's 'unilateral military aggression' on Iraq, the spokesman asserted: 'No we do not support "unilateralism." We want all issues and matters to be resolved through the United Nations and we fully support the United Nations Charter and accept its supremacy.' He said Pakistan had not extended any facilities for the U.S.-British military operation and emphasized that they had been provided no air bases in this regard. The U.S. was allowed air base facilities in some parts of the country during the anti-terror war in Afghanistan for limited purposes of rescue and logistics, he added."

Russia's Tass News Agency reported on the Iraq-based rift between the U.S. and Russia: "Russia did not export arms and double-purpose products to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions, said Abbas Khalaf, Iraq's ambassador to Moscow. 'The assertions to this effect are a lie,' he told a briefing on Tuesday. 'It appears that the U.S. needed it in order to justify its failures in Iraq,' Khalaf said. He said 'Iraq will be able to rebuff the American aggression on its own. The prognoses that the American-British troops will take Baghdad as early in the evening today are absurd,' the ambassador said, adding that 'units of the regular Iraqi army as yet have not taken part in fighting. The U.S.' assurances about high-precision of the used arms raise doubt. American aviation has bombed out the Baghdad university and residential houses in the capital,' Khalaf said. He said Iraqi authorities 'are trying as far as possible to provide food to besieged cities, in particular Basra and Nasiriyah, which also has not been taken by the Americans and Britons.' The U.S. 'will fail to use Kurds on its side,' Khalaf said. 'The Kurds are an inalienable part of our people,' he said."

Compiled by Andrew Cohen