Posted on 04/04/2003 5:18:07 AM PST by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush braced Americans on Friday for more casualties ahead of the looming battle for Baghdad, but vowed to accept no less than complete victory.
Despite mounting questions about U.S. military strategy in the face of stiffer-than-expected resistance in the south, Bush said U.S.-led forces were steadily taking control of the country and advancing on the capital.
White House officials denied that war planners were caught off guard by Iraqi resistance and said second-guessing by news media and others was frustrating the American president who believed the war was progressing "on track."
"We're inflicting severe damage on enemy forces. We are now fighting the most desperate units of the dictator's army. Fierce fighting currently under way will demand further courage and further sacrifice. Yet, we know the outcome of this battle," Bush told U.S. war veterans before leaving for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat.
"Against this enemy we will accept no outcome except complete victory."
Bush's vow for a total victory on U.S. and British terms appeared aimed at heading off any attempt by the Iraqis to drag out the conflict in hope of demoralizing the United States and its allies and seeking a negotiated settlement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he wanted to stop the war immediately and resume work toward a political settlement within the U.N. Security Council.
The White House swung into damage control after a senior U.S. officer -- Lt. Gen. William Wallace, commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps -- was quoted as saying unanticipated Iraqi guerrilla tactics and overstretched supply lines pointed to a longer conflict than predicted.
A British defense source also warned that invading troops lacked the "overwhelming force" needed to battle in the streets of Baghdad.
SURPRISE TACTICS?
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz conceded that the United States had not anticipated some of the ruses and tactics used by Iraqi fighters, but insisted that the U.S. military campaign was going as planned.
In the areas of the country still under President Saddam Hussein's control, Bush accused Iraqi forces of committing war crimes, including the execution of prisoners of war.
He said those responsible would be "hunted relentlessly and judged severely."
Despite some criticism that the war was not going as well as predicted, support for the war remained high among Americans
with polls generally showing more than 70 percent support.
A few blocks from the White House, anti-war protesters linked together with plastic piping were arrested by police after a morning rush-hour demonstration.
Officials said Bush never put a timetable on war and likened the current naysaying to fears of a "quagmire" one week into the successful American military campaign to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"I think it is fair to say that there's some level of frustration with the press corps," a senior administration official said, adding, "He (Bush) thinks it's silly, not borne out by the facts."
Just three days before Bush gave orders to fire the first cruise missile, Vice President Dick Cheney was on television suggesting that a war would "go relatively quickly" and wrap up in "weeks rather than months."
Others, including Kenneth Adelman, a former Pentagon aid and U.S. envoy to the United Nations, predicted a "cakewalk."
But Fleischer told reporters it was premature to say how long the 10-day-old war would last.
"The president understands people want to know," he said. But he added: "These things are not knowable in the course of war... It will last as long as it needs to last."
Here we go again. After some research last week, it's been determined that it was X-42 who was touring the world with such comments, as can be evidenced by the quote from an NPR March 6th interview below. (Just one of many such examples.)
Not that I expected AP to report anything close to the truth!
"If conflict does come, Clinton said, he thinks a war could be "over in a week" because of what he sees as the overwhelming capability of U.S. forces and the depletion of Iraq's military strength.
"I think it's important to disarm this man, I think he's a bad fella, but our military superiority is so great -- it's far greater than it was in the Gulf War, and the Gulf War was over in 100 hours after we bombed for 43 days," Clinton said. "And so now they can bomb for a couple of days and then just roll into Baghdad. His military is less than half the strength it was 12 years ago and ours is more sophisticated and better and more modern."
He sounds like he'd be a sucker at the race track.
He must have learned to be so carelessly optimistic from his Mother.
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