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To: John who wrote (232119)	3/29/2003 11:40:11 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

U.S. Central Command Says No Battlefield Pause Sat March 29, 2003 08:45 AM ET AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - U.S. Central Command said on Saturday there would be no "pause" in military operations to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Earlier, U.S. military sources in central Iraq said troops had been ordered to pause in their northward push on Baghdad. "I think that with respect to a pause, there is no pause on the battlefield. Just because you see a particular formation pause on the battlefield it does not mean there is a pause," Major General Victor Renuart told a news conference. "I don't believe there is any intent to pause on the battlefield. We will continue to focus our operations. Sometimes they will be focused in the west, sometimes in the north, sometimes in the south, sometimes all together," he said. Renuart joked he had asked U.S. Central Command chief General Tommy Franks for a few days leave and been turned down. Earlier, U.S. military sources said commanders had ordered a pause of four to six days in their northward push toward Baghdad because of supply shortages and stiff Iraqi resistance. They said the "operational pause," ordered on Friday, meant advances would be put on hold while the military tried to sort out logistics problems caused by long supply lines from Kuwait. Renuart said 10 days did not amount to a long conflict, noting it took some 60 to 70 days before the Americans "installed" Hamid Karzai as president in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led military campaign to topple the Taliban administration. "It's important to put this operation in context," he said. "We're continuing exactly on the plan that we would like...The morale of our troops is exquisite." Asked about concerns the U.S. supply lines were stretched and vulnerable to guerrilla attacks, he said: "There have been some harassing attacks on our supply lines but they have not stopped the movement of our logistical support." Renuart said he could not confirm reports that food rations had been cut for some frontline U.S. units. Reuters correspondents with U.S. troops south of Baghdad have said their rations have been cut to one meal a day from three. The military sources had said the U.S.-led invasion force would continue to attack Iraqi forces to the north with heavy air strikes during the "pause," battering them before any attack on Baghdad, they said. The officers declined to be named. On Friday, Britain's Army chief, Mike Jackson, dismissed suggestions that the campaign had become bogged down after a few days of quick advances from Kuwait since the invasion started on March 20. But he spoke of a need to pause. Saddam's government has played down the lightning advance by the U.S.-led forces, saying most of the gains have been across tracts of desert while skirting major towns along the route. asia.reuters.com John, I think they say complexity becomes a virtue or something like that.