It's unfortunate that this looks bad politically (remember, one purpose of this war was to scare the hell out of our other enemies, which we are not doing), but at least we have a military leadership which can change the plan when it isn't working as well as desired.
Alternatively, it may be a brilliant disinformation operation. I generally don't go in for the "it's all a cunning plan!" theories, but there are just some things about this which make me wonder.