"The sending of 120k more troops in 2 more armored divisions to the conflict is not a small reinforcement, but essentially a clear admission that current forces in the region are wholely inadequate to ASSURE a rapid victory. "

The US miltary has been saying it's ready for the president to order to start this war for at least 2 months- this "miltary readiness" was the reason 1441 we got passed.
This is not new. Before Gulf War I, the miltary was also saying it would "ready" well before the build up of the 1/2 million troops.
I recall early on the "rumor" that somehow 25,000 troops would be enough for this war (and the clamor this produced).
This isn't exactly incorrect to say that the Miltary is ready when it's not at full (or even 1/2 strength). With lower troop numbers, the US miltary would have fewer options- lowest numbers might be a defensive posture, for example, with perhaps a large number of aircraft carriers in the region which could provide enough firepower to stop/harass any forces of Iraq which could move towards a offensive action. And as forces are built up more miltary options become possible.
It must be remembered that the miltary did not know if or when it was going to start the war- or even if there was going to be any miltary forces used. As we approached the summer the chance of going to war would have *probably* reduced because of the disadvantages of the increased heat and other weather. But at the same time, the miltary would have *probably* wanted to continue to give the President the option of miltary action even if he wanted to start a full scale war in the middle of the Summer- e.g. they could have given him a number of options with of course the various price tags attached.

If you look at the most likely outcome before we went to war, we probably would have started the war at least a couple weeks later than what we did- how could we predict that France would declare it's intention to veto *ANY* UN resolution? And with that "planned" resolution it would be a matter of negoitation before assigning a date. So after France made it's intention clear, the US miltary was probably playing catch up to get enough forces on the ground with the knowledge that the sooner the better as far as the weather and coming summer.