Editor's Note: If top fighting generals are making statements like this 
with troops still in the field, the level of frustration among those 
tasked to fight this war must be enormous. The game plan espoused by 
Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle has left our troops exposed, underfed, 
lacking fuel and open to attacks from the flank. Nasiriya and Basra 
remain untaken, with Baghdad looming ominously in the distance.  
Many of our soldiers are dead or wounded. General Wallace has every 
right to be angry. - wrp  

Outspoken Army General Upsets White House
By The Associated Press

Friday 28 March 2003

WASHINGTON -- His war plan may not have panned out in Iraq quite as 
neatly as Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace had hoped.  

"The plan is to be decisive, rapid, lethal and to give our adversary 
no edge he can take advantage of,'' Wallace, commander of the ground 
battle in Iraq, was quoted as saying earlier this month.  

After a week of war, Wallace upset the White House Thursday by 
saying publicly that Pentagon strategists had misunderstood the 
combativeness of Iraqi fighters. The miscalculation, he said, 
had stalled the coalition's drive toward Baghdad.  

"The enemy we're fighting against is different from the one we'd 
war-gamed against,'' Wallace, commander of V Corps, told The New 
York Times and The Washington Post. "We knew they were here, but 
we did not know how they would fight.''  

Wallace's comments fed into the frustration the Bush administration 
already was expressing over media coverage of the pace of the war 
effort. The war, the White House says daily, is going well and at 
a good speed.  

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer on Friday would not say 
whether he agreed with Wallace.  

"The strength of the plan is at the ability to adapt to the realities 
of the circumstances while still focused on what it is we seek to do,''
Fleischer said at his daily briefing.  

At a briefing at U.S. Central Command in Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent 
Brooks said uncertainty is part of battle.  

"No one can ever predict how a battle will unfold,'' Brooks said. 
``We remain confident that we have a good grip on what's going on 
here and we're proceeding.''  

Tough talk isn't new for Wallace, 55, who was promoted to commanding 
general of V Corps in June 2001.  

Chafing at the wait for action to begin earlier this year, Wallace 
growled to a reporter that he was sick of having to deal with missile 
warnings of Iraqi incoming "lawn darts'' without striking back. 
Saddam Hussein, he said in less polite terms, was ticking him off.  

Wallace also said he found the responsibility humbling.

He had worked for it all his career. Wallace, who goes by his middle 
name, Scott, graduated from West Point in 1969 and then the U.S. 
Army Command and General Staff College and the Naval War College 
before earning postgraduate degrees in operations analysis and 
international relations.  

A Vietnam veteran, Wallace progressed from soldier to student to 
trainer and commander. By June 1999, he was serving as commander 
of the Joint Warfighting Center and director of joint training at 
the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.  

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material 
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior 
interest in receiving the included information for research and 
educational purposes.)  

(c): t r u t h o u t 2003

                             -==-

Source: Truthout - http://truthout.org/docs_03/033003B.shtml

Cheers, Steve..

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