In Baghdad, the mood was tense, but resigned. Although Iraq's state-run media did not mention Bush's deadline, the people of Baghdad, with years of practice getting around government censorship, knew what was going on. Not that it mattered: Those who could flee have already. The rest wait. "Why should we listen to the news?" said Mohammad, a Baghdad taxi driver. "What change can we make to this equation?" Currency traders continued to handicap the war; the dollar shot up in the exchange market from 260 Iraqi dinars to 285 in the hours after Bush's ultimatum.
Across the border in Kuwait, U.S. troops made their final preparations. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division began lining the bottoms of their vehicles with sandbags — a proven method of surviving a landmine. Inspections of aircraft and ground vehicles intensified; it's 400 miles to Baghdad from their camp in the Kuwaiti desert, and nobody wants to be left behind.
Most of the soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania, the 101st's base in Kuwait, chose to sleep through the President's address, which was televised at 4 A.M. local time. By noon Tuesday, all that most of the soldiers here knew about the speech was that the President had given Saddam 48 hours to go into exile. "All I know is that the President gave him 48 hours and eight of them are gone," said Major Brian Winski, the Executive Officer of the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry.
Camp Fever is setting in and the soldiers are getting restless. Captain Patrick Bass, a 35 year old Signal Officer says, "We need to get up there and occupy some Republican Guard barracks. My tent is getting awfully dusty." Time to go.