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Confused Start, Decisive End Invasion Shaped by Miscues, Bold Risks and Unexpected Successes By Rick Atkinson, Peter Baker and Thomas E. RicksWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, April 13, 2003; Page A01 BAGHDAD, April 12 -- It was the low point of the war for the two generals. On March 27, outside the city of Najaf, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps, met with Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division. As they sat on gray folding chairs in the desert wasteland, the war seemed to be in dismal shape.The critical crossroads...

Miscues, Confusion, Unexpected Successes Shaped Invasion Plan BAGHDAD, April 12 -- It was the low point of the war for the two generals. On March 27, outside the city of Najaf, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps, met with Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division. As they sat on gray folding chairs in the desert wasteland, the war seemed to be in dismal shape. The critical crossroads city of Nasiriyah had degenerated into a shooting gallery for U.S. convoys. An Army maintenance unit was ambushed on an overextended supply...

The war in Iraq is just about to get tougher for Lt. General William S. Wallace.He ignited the ire of the White House by observing publicly tht Penatgon war strategists had misunderstood the combativeness of Iraqi fighters.The miscalculation, he said, stalled the coalition's drive towards Baghdad.'The enemy we're fighting against is different from the one that we wargamed against,' Wallace, Commander of V Corps, told the New York Times and the Washington Post Thursday.Wallace's comments fueled the Bush Administration's frustration with media coverage that focuses on why the conflict isn't over. The war, the White House says daily, is going...

<p>FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHELL, Iraq, March 27 — The Army’s senior ground commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, said today that overextended supply lines and a combative adversary using unconventional tactics have stalled the U.S. 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,” Wallace, commander of V Corps, said during a visit to the 101st Airborne Division headquarters here in central Iraq.</p>

Biggest Bombs of War Dropped on Baghdad By DAVID CRARY .c The Associated Press The biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far - two 4,700-pound ``bunker busters'' - struck a communications tower Friday in an intense U.S. bombardment aimed at cutting off Saddam Hussein's command from his forces. Iraqi officials said allied forces would suffer if they assault the capital; U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested a siege might be preferable to an all-out assault. U.S. and British troops continued to battle Iraqi regulars and paramilitary units in the south. A U.S. Marine was killed in one battle, at...

Career military officers work and sweat and bleed their entire careers just to occupy a position of command, and possibly make a difference at a critical juncture in their nation's history. The looming war with Iraq finds Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, the commander of the U.S. Army's V Corps, home-stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, at just such a juncture. Wallace is a West Point graduate and veteran of the Vietnam War and now commands all U.S. Army fighting forces in the Kuwaiti theater. On March 11, National Journal Correspondent James Kitfield interviewed Wallace in his headquarters at Camp Virginia, Kuwait.NJ:...