Roundup of editorials on U.S.-Iraq showdown.

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, April 1:

`THE POWER TO BE PATIENT'

After a few days of what some American commanders called an "operational pause," it appears that the noose is again tightening around Baghdad. Iraqi commanders were pulling troops out of the north of the country to shore up Republican Guard units devastated by days of American bombing, U.S. officials said Monday.

Is this war going according to all the carefully formed allied plans? That's hard to say, given the crossfire that has developed between Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and some American commanders who admitted a few days ago that they were surprised by the resistance that some Iraqi fighters were putting up. Clearly, it's not going according to the rosiest scenarios, which had the Iraqis welcoming American troops with open arms, and ushering them to Baghdad to crush the tyrant Saddam Hussein.

But as many have noted, war plans are made to be changed. And that is exactly what allied commanders are doing. Here's the important point: This war is on the allied timetable, not Saddam's. While this alleged "pause" has slowed advances by ground forces, a week of heavy bombing has rendered some of the Republican Guard units surrounding Baghdad at less than half strength, Pentagon officials said.

That sounds like a pretty good war plan.

"Their fighting capacity is going down minute by minute, hour by hour. There's not going to be much left to fight with," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Sunday. "We have the power to be patient in this, and we're not going to do anything before we're ready. We'll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter."