Ba'athism is an Arab political doctrine which combines elements of socialist thinking with pan-Arabism. This theory of Arab nationalism conceives of the 'Arab nation' as a single entity stretching from Morocco to Iraq which has been artificially divided by colonialism and imperialism.
Ba'athism originated in Syria, where the first Ba'ath Party was founded in 1953. Ba'athists have held power in Syria since 1963 and held power in Iraq from 1968 until they were overthrown in 2003 by a US led coalition of America, Britain and Australia which invaded Iraq in March 2003 under the pretence of disarming the regime of weapons of mass destruction. The Syrian and Iraqi branches of the movement were deeply divided. There have been further divisions between its civilian and military elements. While the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein employed the slogans of pan-Arabism to justify his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the Ba'ath Party in Iraq was reduced to an instrument of state power. Research Ba'athism
The ISO (International Standards Organisation) assigns a two character code to each country name. These codes are used by Internet 'whois' databases (these two character abbreviations are the whois country codes) and also other applications.
The GBU-28 is an American laser-guided penetrator, blast/fragmentation bomb (bunker buster) designed in 1991 for the specific task of penetrating buried Iraqi command bunkers during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The GBU-28 is 19 feet 2 inches long and carries a 4400 lb penetrating warhead comprising 630 pounds of high explosive and 3770 lbs of probably nuclear or radioactive additional materials within the main body of the bomb, this main body being a former 8-inch calibreartillery gun tube. The GBU-28 has a range in excess of 5 nautical miles. They are carried by F-15E and F-111F aircraft. The GBU-28 can penetrate 20 feet of concrete or 100 feet of earth, after which the explosive detonates to destroy the underground bunker. Research GBU-28
The King's Regiment is a British infantry regiment formed in 1685. It comprises the 1st or Regular Battalion, stationed with its families in Cyprus until 1998, and the 5th/8th or Territorial Army Battalion which has bases in Liverpool, Warrington and Manchester. The Colonel in Chief is Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the Colonel of the Regiment is Brigadier Jeremy Gaskell OBE. Officers join the regiment from all over the United Kingdom but the regiment prides itself on its unique position as the Army's only City Regiment, recruiting its soldiers - the Kingsmen - from Liverpool and Manchester. The Regiment expanded in 1756 to two battalions. In 1758, one formed the 8th or King's Regiment of Foot and the other became the 63rd which was later still to become the Manchester Regiment. In 1958, these two Regiments rejoined as the King's Regiment. The Regiment has battle honours from service all over the world, from Marlborough's battles in the 18th century to Korea in 1953. In the Great War the Regiment raised the second largest number of battalions of any regiment in the Army - 87.
During the Second World War, the Regiment served world-wide. Battalions fought in France in 1940, took part in the heroic defence of Malta, landed in the first few minutes of the D-Day operation and fought in the jungles of Burma. A battalion of the Regiment fought with great distinction in the first Chindit expedition and another battalion fought with equal bravery, providing the glider-borne spearhead of the second Chindit expedition. Battalions fought in Italy and across North-west Europe until the end of the war. In the last 50 years, regular battalions, often reinforced from territorial battalions, have served on operations in Malaya, Kenya, Kuwait, Northern Ireland, Hong Kong and Belize. Garrisons have been provided for Guyana, the Falklands and of course for extended periods all over Germany. Men from Liverpool and Manchester have been decorated for gallantry in all theatres and most recently in Northern Ireland.
The Regiment's volunteer battalion tradition stems both from its 5th King's (Liverpool) Battalion (which was originally the third to be raised in the country and the first in the North West of England) and the 8th Battalion The ManchesterRegiment. This tradition is maintained in the 5th/8th Battalion which includes a Scottish Company, tracing its origins to the Liverpool Scottish Battalion whose doctor gained one of only three bars ever awarded to the Victoria Cross. In total, over 23 Victoria Crosses and one George Cross have been awarded to men of the Regiment, including one of the very few VCs to have been awarded between the Great War and the Second World War. The 1st Battalion comprises 35 officers recruited from all over the country and nearly 600 men recruited almost exclusively from Liverpool and Manchester. In addition there are many thousands of former serving officers and soldiers settled in the North West of England who retain the closest links with the Regiment through the two Regimental offices in Liverpool and Manchester.
The Regiment has a fine sporting record, having won the unique Army double of boxing and football championships in its tercentenary year of 1985. Many of the Regiment's boxers have fought for their country and the Battalion football team had the privilege of training with England's winning 1966 World CupSquad. Liverpool, Manchester and the Borough of Tameside have honoured the Regiment with the granting of the Freedom of the Cities and the Borough. This very close link is exemplified by the warmth and goodwill extended to the Regiment by civic and commercial institutions in both cities and the borough. The Regiment is immensely proud of its unique position as the Army's only City Regiment. Research King's Regiment
Hydroponics is the process of growing plants on a sterile inert material such as sand, gravel, or liquid, without soil but continuously provided with nutrients in solution. In this way it is possible to control the balance of inorganic nutrients such as potassium, sulphur, magnesium, and nitrogen, supplied to the plant, and to provide the correct mixture for a particular stage of plant growth. Crops are planted in one metre wide beds fitted with movable shades to control exposure to sunlight. Hydroponics has a particular application for the production of crops such as green peppers and aubergines in greenhouses, but has also been applied on a much larger scale, particularly in desert regions such as Kuwait, where the water supply is sparse and the soil is very poor quality. Research Hydroponics
An image intensifier is a device similar to a televisioncamera which registers faint differences in reflected light from a target area. These differences are then fed through an electronic amplification circuit, giving a gain of 50 times. The resulting image is then referred through the circuit twice more (three times being the limit before distortion sets in) to give an image intensification of some 125,000X. The resulting image is sufficient to identify a man-sized target at 300 metres or a vehicle at 500 metres. The early image intensifiers were developed for military purposes and had two drawbacks. Firstly they were bulky and secondly they emitted a supersonic whistle which while inaudible to humans, disturbed wildlife and thus alerted the targets that they were being observed. During the 1980s a second generation of smaller
image intensifiers were developed using a new type of circuitry which didn't whistle, but at the expense of a little gain.
Image intensifiers are now used by the medical industry and televisioncamera crews (notably during the Iraq-Kuwait War) as well as the military and police. Research Image Intensifier
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an organisation created in 1960 to unify and co-ordinate the petroleum policies of member countries and to protect their interests, individually and collectively. Present members are Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Venezuela. OPEC was not of great importance until the early 1970s, when increased international demand made oil a relatively scarce commodity. In 1973 to 1974 OPEC brought about a four-fold increase in the international price of crude petroleum to more than $11 per barrel; the price exceeded $30 per barrel by the early 1980s, helping to fuel inflation in many industrialised nations. Subsequently, the combined effects of conservation and recession in the oil- consuming nations weakened the oil market, leading to sharp declines both in petroleum prices and in OPEC's political and economic influence. OPEC's attempts to stabilise prices by limiting production during the second half of the decade were thwarted by some member countries, which exceeded their production quotas in order to pay for military equipment or to finance expansion programs undertaken during the boom years earlier. Iraq's take- over of Kuwait in 1990 temporarily disrupted the oil markets, but the price gradually dropped to a pre- invasion level of about $20 a barrel. Research Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
HMS Scyla is a British Leander Classfrigate of 2500 tons displacement built by the HM Dockyard and launched in 1968. She served in Operation Desert Storm, the war with Iraq to liberate Kuwait in 1991. She was armed with twin 4.5 inch guns and two 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and a Limbo anti-submarine mortar. She carried a Westland Wasphelicopter and was manned by a crew of 251. Research Scyla
Abbreviations
Research Ba'athism
