The next milestone on the road to war in Iraq has been passed. American and Britain have alerted reservists for active duty and begin moving ground and air units to the Persian Gulf. The rule of thumb for situations like this indicate that an invasion force would be ready to cross the Iraqi border in 4-6 weeks. 

But the start of an Iraq invasion could be held off for weeks, or months. Even fighting in the Summer is not as much of a hassle as previously thought. US and British forces are trained and equipped to fight at night and conducting most combat operations at night would solve a lot of the heat problems, and scare the hell out of the opposition.

UN arms inspectors have started using their helicopters, allowing them to travel farther and make more surprise inspections.

U.S. and British warplanes bombed Iraqi aid defense sites in southern Iraq after the Iraqis fired on the coalition aircraft.