WAR ON IRAK

New York Times: A Readers' Guide to the War By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

With U.S. forces running into unexpectedly strong resistance, let me suggest a couple of guideposts to monitor progress of the war:

Will the invasion get bogged down? One of the scarier places in Iraq is a tiny hamlet, Umm Qasr, just over the border from Kuwait. A smuggler's haven with docks, low buildings and just 4,000 people, it was secured in the first hours of the invasion, military officials announced. Only it wasn't.

Will ordinary Iraqis shower U.S. troops with flowers? If the White House vision — that Iraqi citizens would cheer our invasion — was borne out, that would go a long way to defuse antagonism toward us in Europe and the Arab world. So far, though, the effusive welcome the White House counted on has been largely absent.

In Safwan, some residents did shout blessings on the Americans. But reports from Basra, Nasiriya, Umm Qasr and other towns suggest there are few signs so far that the population is cheering the invasion.

A Reuters correspondent, Rosalind Russell, saw a group of Iraqi youths waving as a convoy of British tanks and trucks rolled by. But once it had passed, their smiles turned to scowls. "We don't want them here," said 17-year-old Fouad. He pulled out a photo of Saddam from the waistband of his trousers and said defiantly: "Saddam is our leader. Saddam is good."