A slow start to the day after my late retirement and so I had to join Diana later for coffee in St Neots where I also bought a small TV to watch the Gulf War news in my office.
Nine captured pilots from America, Britain, Kuwait were paraded on Baghdad TV as the day begun with another Scud attack on Saudi Arabia and the House of Commons debated the war today. There has been more trouble in the Baltic states with the Soviet authorities using "black-berets" to attack the local nationalist efforts to secede from the USSR.
I slept reasonably-well last night but was still tired this morning in view of my late nights and early mornings. The news from the Gulf today is of the parading on Baghdad TV of nine captured pilots from America, Britain, Kuwait etc. Western spokesmen were outraged by this breach of the Geneva Convention on the exposure of prisoners, particularly after the Iraqis announced that they will now be placed at industrial and economic locations. I got showered and dressed quite late and then decided to go to St Neots with Diana but she upset me by already having left. I caught up with her in town and we both did some chores and then had a coffee together. I bought a new 15-inch Toshiba 155T9BZ teletext colour TV today at the sale price of £240 which I brought home and installed in my office so that I could keep up with the war and economic news whilst working in my office. A number of telephone calls this afternoon as I did a little work and then, this evening, I updated my journal and worked on a number of other items.
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The Gulf War news today is of more air losses and day-time attacks on the Scuds with an artillery battle also opening up across the border. The latest air losses are now given as 10 American, 4 British, one Italian Tornado and one each for Saudi Arabia and Kuwaiti and 15-30 Iraqi but I think that there are many more that are not confirmed. It is now apparent that US war-planes are also making missions from Turkey as a NATO ally of the US and Britain, but the government there are not telling the population who are against the idea. The House of Commons debated the war today for the first time since the commencement of hostilities and a number of peace-campaigners in the Labour Party protested that there was no chance to debate and vote on an amendment that there be a cease-fire to allow peaceful negotiations. There has been more trouble in the Baltic states with the Soviet authorities using "black-berets" to attack the local nationalist efforts to secede from the USSR. The day ended as it had begun with another Scud attack on Saudi Arabia but this time the military press briefings are ruing the cloud cover and fog and signalling that there is lots of capability left with the Iraqi air, missile and land forces