"He said, if we had kept these 5,000 hostages here, would Bush still have attacked Baghdad?"

Few in the Administration have hopes that American support can build an Iraqi force capable of attacking Baghdad.

American warplanes attacked central Baghdad as marines took control of an airfield in the city's southeastern section.

Up to now, he has been able to bypass the towns along the way and go on into the desert, but in the end he will have to attack Baghdad.

By the middle of February, the 525th was attacking Baghdad.

In one long moment yesterday, word that the United States had attacked Baghdad swept the country.

American officials argued that they did not need a Security Council resolution to attack Baghdad because President Bush had already secured the necessary authorization from Congress.

As American soldiers build in force to attack Baghdad, regular Iraqi troops on the outskirts gave every sign of crumbling.

The column, comprising about 14,000 marines, is the middle of a three-pronged effort to attack Baghdad.

But if - but had we kept those 5,000 individuals from the West and from Japan here, would Bush still have attacked Baghdad?