It was yet another gauntlet to commercial aviation, already reeling from 9/11 and the SARS epidemic earlier in the year. In March, coalition forces began launching air strikes aimed at toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. On March 19th, we wrote: The United States has led off the first actions in its war with Iraq with a "surgical strike" designed to disable a key Iraqi military target. In a short address that started at 2215 Wednesday night, President George W. Bush indicated that the first attack had begun. This initial effort was a combination of F-117 actions combined with Tomahawk cruise missiles against a specific target, rumored to be a bunker, in Baghdad, Iraq.