On February 16, 2001, “Using the unpublicized new ‘response options’ [President] Bush had recently approved, American and British aircraft had hit some twenty military communications targets far inside Iraq, including on the outskirts of the capital. The strikes ‘had set off the air raid system in Baghdad and all hell was breaking loose. It was much closer to Baghdad than any of us had realized,’ the official [who was traveling with Bush in Mexico at the time of the bombing] said. The Iraqis were already parading injured civilians in front of CNN cameras.”
– Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 317