But that is about 30k troops. The remaining 100k forces, mostly armor, were not part of the original force and if they were they would have been deployed months ago. They are now being sent because, as most inactive military analysts (read: military men able to speak their minds freely) agree we are far too thin on armor. We basically have one fully armored tank division, the 7th I believe, facing 3 RG armored divisions. That's an awful lot of work expected of them. We have significant infantry units in the region which will be very useful when it becomes an urban battle, but they are not designed to fight tanks divisions alone. One infantry division has 75 Apache helicopters but that's it. And of course we have air power but with tanks hiding in mosques and hospitals it's not easy taking them out.

Additional armor now being sent to the Gulf is clearly an afterthought. Had it been in place to begin with we could end this war quickly, well before summer comes. Hopefully we still can but the Iraqis are showing no signs of rolling over. Again, Bush and Rumsfeld rejected the overwhelming force doctrine, UNTIL NOW, when they saw they Iraqis would put up a fight. A miscalculation that will cost lives.