Petr, I'm not an al-Jezeera viewer, being as (a) I'm the wrong national/religious group, (b) I've got no satellite, and (c) I've got no TV. ;-) However I believe al-Jezeera did actually protest Saddam's treatment of his people. Early on, al-Jezeera had several of their reporters kicked out of Iraq by Saddam because they tried to report honestly on Iraqi casualties. They're as much biased towards the Arab view as CNN and co are biased towards the Western view - consider this as a different political viewpoint in the same way as different newspapers have different political angles.

Sorefingers and pdc's posts are ridiculous though. If it's got a rifle and it's firing at US/UK soldiers, then it knows the risk it's taking. The aim of any soldier is not to be sportsmanlike and give them a decent chance of killing you, the aim is for you to stay alive and to kill anyone who shoots at you. Or would it be "fair" to deprive the US/UK soldiers of their armoured vehicles so that more of them get killed?

Please don't forget that the army and secret police are tightly linked to Saddam's regime, so they're taking these suicidal risks and getting slaughtered because even that is preferable to being ripped apart by a mob when that mob realises they don't have to be afraid any more. A sensible soldier would surrender when outnumbered and outgunned so radically, but they don't dare surrender because they know what'll happen to them when they do - at best they're all looking at long years in jail. Basically, they're screwed either way. I for one have no sympathy for them. I have sympathy for the few weak-willed people who genuinely do support Saddam, but I can't see them being in the majority.

And Iraqis are starting to welcome the US/UK troops. The reason they didn't shout and cheer earlier is that they shouted and cheered in 1991, the US/UK pulled out and the people were massacred. Also remember that there are still elements of Saddam's army/police around who can shoot you in secret, and that you could get shot by accident by a nervous or just off-target coalition soldier (which has happened many times so far). Do you blame the Iraqi civilians for keeping their heads down until the dust settles?

Graham.