Washington: US Army's top ground commander has admitted that overextended supply
lines and a combative adversary have stalled the American drive toward Baghdad and
increased the likelihood of a longer war than many strategists had anticipated.
"The enemy we're fighting is different from the one we'd war-gamed against,"
lieutenant general William Wallace, commander of V Corps, told the 'Washington Post'
in Central Iraq on March 27.
"The attacks we're seeing are bizarre – technical vehicles (pickups) with .50
calibres and every kind of weapon charging tanks and Bradleys (armoured vehicles),"
Wallace said.
Asked whether combat developments in the past week increased the likelihood of a
much longer war than some planners had forecast, Wallace said, "It's beginning to
look that way."
For now, the two divisions that form the heart of V Corps – the third Infantry and
101st Airborne – have paused indefinitely to allow thinly stretched logistics troops
to stock up water, ammunition, food, fuel and other supplies for at least 10 days,
Army sources said.
Sustained combat over the past week has depleted the third Infantry's stocks of
water, fuel and ammunition, according to the sources. However, the pause will not
affect the firing of long-range artillery, Air Force and Navy combing sorties and
attacks by AH-64 Apache helicopters, Wallace said.
"We knew we'd have to pause at some point to build our logistics power," Wallace
said. "This is about where we'd expected."
What US military planners had clearly not expected, the daily said, was that their
troops would have to fight three Iraqi military forces: the regular Army, considered
a mediocre force of poorly motivated conscripts; a half-dozen Republican Guard units
with tanks and better-trained troops; and the Special Republican Guard, 12,000 to
16,000 troops.
The paramilitary forces, while recognised by planners, have demonstrated a
willingness and ability to fight that has caught the Americans off-balance. "The
theory was that they might not welcome us, but that they wouldn't resist us," a
senior officer said.
"I hope this is what's being cast in some quarters as the dying gasp of a regime on
the ropes. But I'm not so sure," he added.
PTI
