At the beginning of the Gulf War...there were options on the table...and obviously today...we can say that all things considered...we have entered a fairly deep mess. From this...we aren't exiting the mess anytime soon.
So in some ways...Reid has a slight point. Whatever options people think exist for the Iran situation...pick the worst case scenario for the US (a year into the Iran "conflict")...and think about having a second "mess" on your hands.
If we played by Weinberger's rules...we'd fight to win...decisively. And then exit by that point. Its not the job of our troops to play "police guard". We haven't exited, nor do we have such a plan in the near future. Reid may be wrong...but so far...Bush and Rumsfeld haven't exactly proven our strategy to be a winner.
The problem is, congress and the public are always fighting the last war. The "experts" were predicting a tough battle vs a "seasoned" army (from Iraq's conflict with Iran), with coalition casualties in the tens of thousands back in 1991. It didn't happen. During this last go around, the conventional wisdom was a long grind in urban warfare, Stalingrad type battles. Wrong again. Pick a scenario for what may happen with Iran. With the exception of our victory, I doubt it transpires that way.