U.S. at war in Iraq, MLK leads voting march: News Journal archives, week of March 17
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"Pages of history" features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal.
March 17, 2004, The News Journal
Future of Dover Air Force Base secure
Delaware’s leading elected officials said Tuesday they came away from a meeting with Air Force leaders reassured that Dover Air Force Base is all but assured of surviving a new round of military base closings slated for next year.
A group of about 25 state and local government, corporate and civic leaders were briefed Monday by Gen. John W. Handy, head of the U.S. Transportation Command and the Air Mobility Command, which directs operations at the Dover base.
The briefing…reinforced previous Air Force statements that the base remains a major cog in the country’s airlift operations, according to Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat….
“What we heard…was music to our ears,” Carper said….
Minner said Handy offered assurances that “the base here is very important” to the overall global airlift mission….
“We were assured that it’s unlikely that the base will be going away,” Minner said.
March 18, 2008, The News Journal
Financial crisis deepens
The Federal Reserve is taking unprecedented steps as it battles a full-blown financial crisis: invoking rarely used legal authority to lend directly to investment banks, helping finance the bargain-basement sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan Chase and making the steepest interest-rate cuts in its modern history.
As the Federal Reserve meets today to consider yet another deep cut in the short-term lending rate that influences a broad swath of consumer and business loans, fears are growing that even its most aggressive efforts may not be sufficient to ease an unprecedented global credit crunch and to keep the U.S. economy and world financial system on track….
March 20, 2003, The News Journal
War begins; missiles target Iraqi leaders
The United States Wednesday night launched the opening salvo of a war to topple Saddam Hussein, firing cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs into Baghdad.
U.S. officials said the Iraqi leader himself was among the targets.
“This will not be a campaign of half-measures and we will accept no outcome but victory,” President George W. Bush said in an Oval Office address shortly after explosions ricocheted through the pre-dawn light of the Iraqi capital….
Saddam appeared on state-run television a few hours after the attack. He said the United States had committed a “shameful crime” by attacking Iraq and urged his country to “draw your sword” against the enemy….
The missiles struck less than two hours after Bush’s deadline for Saddam to surrender power or face war….
It was clear from Bush’s words – he called it the opening stages of a “broad and concerted campaign” – that the war to topple the Iraqi dictator and eliminate his weapons of mass destruction had begun.
Earlier in the day, Bush told Congress the attack was part of a worldwide war against terrorism, and American forces launched a raid in Afghanistan at the same time they struck in Iraq. About 1,000 members of the 82nd Airborne Division moved into villages in southeastern Afghanistan, looking for members of the al-Qaida network.
In Iraq, an American-led invasion force of 300,000 troops awaited the order to strike more broadly….
Apart from the desire to capture weapons of mass destruction, Bush’s submission to Congress said a military attack could lead to the discovery of information that would allow the apprehension of terrorists living in the United States….
Despite deep divisions at the United Nations, Bush also claimed “the authority – indeed, given the dangers involved, the duty – to use force against Iraq to protect the security of the American people and to compel compliance with United Nations resolutions.”
The diplomatic wheels still turned at the United Nations, where foreign ministers met in the Security Council at the request of French and Germans, prominent critics of the American military operation.
“This is a sad day for the United Nations,” said UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. “I know that millions of people around the world share this sense of disappointment and are deeply alarmed.”
March 22, 1965, Wilmington Morning News
Dr. King leads trek of thousands in Alabama for voting rights
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands out of Selma, Alabama yesterday in a massive highway pilgrimage heavily guarded by Army troops.
He told his tired followers at the end of the day they were part of “an unstoppable movement.”
Dr. King walked at the head of his civil rights legions on the first leg of a 50-mile, five-day march to the Alabama capital to protest denial of Black voting rights.
When they reached their first overnight campground – a cow pasture dotted by four large tents – Dr. King said the march “would give people all over the country a sense of inspiration.”
Four Delawareans from the Wilmington area are known to have gone to Selma to participate. Leaving on the same Montgomery-bound airplane late Saturday night were the Rev. Dennis J. Loo and the Rev. Frederick H. Bronkema Jr., Presbyterian ministers; the Rev. Richard Reissmann, assistant pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, and Edward Summerton, principal of Castle Hills Elementary School, New Castle….
Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: U.S. at war in Iraq: News Journal archives, week of March 17
