- After a rapid advance of more than 500 kilometres from
Kuwait to within 80 kilometres of Baghdad, it's been reported that coalition
land forces are exhausted, some are surviving on one meal ration a day
and fuel supplies are low.
-
- Unnamed Pentagon officials say the pause will last for
four to six days to allow the convoys of food, water and fuel to reach
the 100,000 or so troops now ringing Baghdad's southern edges.
-
- The flaw in the coalition's military plan that has forced
the pause was an expectation that the Shi'ite-dominated south of Iraq would
rise up in support of the war effort, creating an unstoppable military
and propaganda momentum that would carry the troops to Baghdad to meet
the elite Republican Guard in Saddam Hussein's stronghold.
-
- But the placement of loyal paramilitaries in key southern
cities like Basra has complicated the plan.
-
- The commander of the US Army's V Corp, Lieutenant-General
William Wallace, put paid to the claims that everything was running smoothly
when he candidly revealed that the US hadn't "war-gamed" for
this type of guerilla warfare, though a British military official in Qatar
insisted nothing unusual was going on.
-
- There are reports from the field that troops are still
moving up to the front lines along with convoys. The pause for supplies
could also be used to shift some of the front line quietly into a new position,
say west of Baghdad, before launching a surprise strike.
-
- Either way, the bombing campaign will continue in earnest,
softening up the Republican Guards and destroying Iraqi command and control
posts.
-
- And special forces will continue their covert work. As
such, there will be no pause whatsoever for most of Australia's Middle
East contingent.
-
- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/29/1048653904113.html
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