CNN
http://www.cnn.com

Clark: Quick victory 'not going to happen'
Central Command: Coalition 'certain of the outcome'

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/26/sprj.irq.generals.clark/index.html

(CNN) -- The scenario of a quick coalition victory in Iraq is "not going to
happen," according to retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a CNN analyst and
former NATO supreme allied commander.

"The simple fact is that the liberation didn't quite occur. They didn't
uprise," Clark said Tuesday night.

Clark said that more than a quarter of coalition troops are "tied up in a
messy fight in Basra."

British troops have gathered outside Basra after Iraqi paramilitary forces
retreated into the southern Iraqi city.

An apparent local uprising began Tuesday, and the troops are prepared to
assist civilians to attack the military regime once the scope and scale of
the rebellion is determined, according to British military officials.

Clark said another significant portion of coalition troops are fighting in
Nasiriya, where Marines seized a hospital on the third consecutive day of
fighting. "We've got logistics problems," Clark said.

A U.S. official told CNN on Wednesday that the U.S. military may have
underestimated the strength of the Saddam Fedayeen and other paramilitary
groups operating in southern Iraq.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said in a briefing
Wednesday in Qatar that the resistance from Iraqis "doesn't change our
timeline."

"We've never said that this would be an easy operation," Brooks said, adding
that the coalition remained "certain of the outcome."

Clark said that Turkey's "failure to permit the 4th Infantry Division to go
through was a significant problem, not an insignificant problem."

Turkey has allowed coalition forces to use its airspace but denied access to
ground troops that were to move through the country into northern Iraq.

U.S. Central Command announced that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's command
and control capabilities had been destroyed, along with the national
television station, a key telecom vault and a group of buildings housing
Baghdad Satellite Communications.

But just hours after the command report, local broadcast of the TV station
resumed Wednesday.

Clark predicted before transmission resumed that it may take several
attempts to knock the station off the air completely.

"It's probably redundant, so there's probably another set of mobile antennas
that they will erect," Clark said. "They'll probably try to get a weakened
signal back out, at least once or twice."

Gen. Wesley Clark was NATO supreme allied commander from 1997 to May 2000.
He was also the commander in chief of the U.S. European Command. In 1999, he
commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO's military action in the Kosovo
crisis. Clark later wrote about his experiences in "Waging Modern War." He
is one of CNN's military analysts, along with retired Brig. Gen. David
Grange and retired Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd. Their briefings will appear daily
on CNN.com.