This is surprisingly interesting. I just picked a random log and found this:<p><pre><code> <Swan/+report> test to see if infoserver is echoing
messages to group +war. well all this info is probably old.
The iraqis caused an oil spill 8-10 miles long and a
couple miles wide. It's 12 times the size of that caused
by the exxon valdeez. It's not known if wells are actively
pumping into the gulf right now, or if they just dumped
stored reserves. If they're pumping at max capacity, it'll
get bigger by a factor every 3 days. in other words it
will be 13 times the size of the exxon valdeez in 3 days,
14 in 6, 15 in 9. (I realize I said that wrong). That's a
worst case. It's not possible to overstate how concerned
Bush seemed by this. I think he aged a few years last
night. the spill is not military significant, but
ecologically its a nightmare of course. There is some
concern about water problems, the oil might threaten
desalination plants. Yesterday the weather was much better
over iraq, so they set a record for the # of sorties in a
single day. 2700 I think. they launched 2 missiles at
saudi arabia today, and 7 at israel. (scuds). One hit in
israel, lightly wounding a bunch of people, killing 1. 1
person died in saudi. Patriots knocked out a whole bunch
of them. I just heard from Cheneys mouth that Bush has
something planned to deal with the oil spill. --mcneil
lehrer</code></pre>
File #10 has an Israeli IRC user checking in moments after a SCUD missile hits:<p><pre><code> <Ran> Is there anybody there? I am fine.
Just got the damn gas mask off. Sorry
</code></pre>
A minute later he/she reports that Tel Aviv was hit, source being "my ears".<p>IRC, beating the TV networks since at least 1991...
IRC has always been wonderful in times of trouble. I'm really surprised that people have abandoned it over the last decade.<p>I had to hit IRC when Sept 11th went down because I was stuck in a facility with no television reception and even news sites were down due to load. The only things that were still shifting data were slashdot and a couple of IRC networks. We had a channel relaying news from TV and radio worldwide including from ham and shortwave.
Mirror zipped archive of all 39 IRC logs from the OP's link: <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49805/desert-storm.7z" rel="nofollow">https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49805/desert-storm.7z</a>
I remember very clearly sitting in my first math class in my first term of college, talking about the Gulf War when it started. I was 18 at the time. The big concern we had was another Vietnam, dragging on for years with a new draft. There was a lot of talk on campus about that, until it became clear the war was not going to last long.
I wonder if the IRC logs from the Iraq War (round 2) will ever be declassified and released. IRC is used pretty extensively by the military for communications (generally just called "mIRC", since people associate it so strongly with the official military client), and there were a bunch of different channels on different networks to discuss operations in realtime.<p><a href="http://publicintelligence.net/tactical-chat/" rel="nofollow">http://publicintelligence.net/tactical-chat/</a>
<CaptainJ> THE LIBERATION OF KUAIT HAS BEGUN
<Alexander> WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<Goofa> The liberation of Kuwait has begun.
<Anipa> Mr Fritzwalter: the liberation of Kuwait has begun
<Tylenol> WAR HAS STARTED!!!!
<Alexander> WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The website doesn't seem to work reliably at the moment, here's the archive.org version: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131021002154/http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/communications/logs/Gulf-War/desert-storm/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20131021002154/http://www.ibibli...</a>
Went to watch the July 4 fireworks in SF tonight, but it was cloudy, causing the fireworks to soften into a vague burst of color. I thought, "This looks just like CNN's coverage of the Gulf War. Except without all the fear and death. Damn, I'm lucky -- no war here!"
<p><pre><code> #Belladona# Bagdad Radio reports Saddam has ordered his
troops out of Kuwait IMMEDIATELY!
#Scott# unconfirmed, keep it to +war/+report
#alex# belladona - stop making rumors ....</code></pre>
Archived SomethingAwful thread from 9/11/2001:<p><a href="http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/" rel="nofollow">http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/</a><p><a href="http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/wtc01.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.truegamer.net/SA_911/911%20SATHREAD/wtc01.html</a><p>> WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR
I'd like to see IRC logs from other countries at the same time.<p>As well as a map of all of the invasions and "liberations" with a timeline, and a list of official "reasons" for those military actions.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil_reserves" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_proven_oil...</a><p>Hmm. I wonder what the IRC logs of the Venezuelan "liberation" will look like? Actually for Venezuelan's sake hopefully the economic warfare already going on, along with the encroachment coming from the direction of Brazil during World Cup, will be enough to "integrate" them into the system (i.e. "liberate" them of control over their resources) without requiring overt military action.