The ground "pause" was necessary, according to Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the Army's top commander at the front, because supply lines were stretched so thin. He also told reporters that Iraqi resistance was more intense than anticipated which could make the war longer.
Sources said his comments drew an angry phone call from his boss Gen. Tommy Franks. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not say if Wallace was in trouble.
"I suppose everyone can have their own view," Rumsfeld told reporters today.
The view from the field squared with what Wallace was saying, even if the Bush administration did not like it.
"The United States was planning on walking in here like it was easy and all," Marine Sgt. Jimmy Paiz said. "It's not that easy to conquer a country, is it?"
Supply lines, under continued assault from Iraqi guerrillas, appear to be under duress, with troops running out of food, water and fuel. Soldiers are calling the 250-mile-long supply lines ? a network of roads toward U.S. troops south of Baghdad ? "ambush alley."
"We've got to the stage where some of the infantry here are down to one meal a day, so it's a pretty difficult situation supplying such a large and high-tech army," said the BBC's David Willis, with U.S. Marines in central Iraq.
There was some fighting today in Basra and in the southern oil fields, which the U.S.-led coalition had previously proclaimed under its control.