It's looking more and more as if the United States' taking Turkey for granted in regard to overland access rights with the Iraqi border is a colossal tactical blunder, despite Cheney's claims to the contrary.
When Turkey denied overland access rights, the ability to open a two front war against Iraq was thwarted, PLUS those ships holding the 4th Inf Division had to steam all the way around to south Iraq.
Since Bush couldn't delay starting the war for political reasons (can't let those pesky anti-war demonstrators get the upper hand, plus it would have meant deviating from the script supplied by those conservative think tanks), the 3rd Inf is having to go it alone for 2-3 weeks. Not good.
So now we've got exactly ONE Army division with significant Armored strength in Iraq, along with 2 light infantry Marine groups. Up against five (admittedly understrength) Iraqi armored divisions.
Time to cast the Rambo mystique aside. This is gonna be a brawl.
The war is a week old...everything is going fine. I was taking bets on how long it took the mainstream media to latch onto phrases such as "bogging down" and "tough going" and it took less than a week. War is hell and never easy, this mission will result in success none the less.