The griping is insanity and stupid, and expected. What goes completely unreported and totally misunderstood is the political element in all this. Going in, the White House needed the smallest possible force. What we have, the 4ID, included, was the reply.
Why, then, the rolling start? First, politics: the Prez couldn't wait any longer. He had to go. Next, Iraq: if there was any hope for capitulation, there had to be someone to surrender to. Then there was the need to suppress Iraqi defensive measures, the dire need to trap Saddam in Baghdad, as well as to keep the rest of the world out of Baghdad (imagine how bad the Syrian smuggling would be if we weren't on the ground?), and the equally dire need to suppress likely WMD use, exports -- and Scuds. I'm sure that Saddam never really thought we'd actually mount an invasion. He probably counted on air strikes alone, which he thought he could survive (you think?).
The ASAP and awesome march on Baghdad answered all the above. It also shocked the Iraqis to the core. There is nothing we couldn't have done by air that we're unable to do now with the 3rd ID at the doorstep. There's so much more we can do with them there. Furthermore, there's no reason we can't reinforce now, and there's many other reasons why it'd be more difficult to reinforce prior to an invasion (Turkey, Suez, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, etc.). With the 3rd ID up there, any pro-active objection or obstacles to the land invasion are mute. Most importantly, the Isreali card -- their ace, has been removed from the deck. The fight is contained to Iraq.
Which brings us back to the political realm: imagine the hand wringing now if we were still waiting on an invasion. With the position we have now, there's no more discussion and zero debate. It's done, we're in, and we can only win. We'll do what we have to do.
You will say that we should have had more already stationed. We didn't. We moved with what we had. Mute point. As for advance expectations: Of course we raised expectations of a quick victory. Not a good way to go to war, saying we'll lose. Neither is it a good way to get your enemy to give in in advance.
I'm glad we're alone on this thread now... so little background noise (oops, just bumped it to the top).
FRegards,
-Michael