Compounding the flaw
"Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe Turkey forbade the land passage of US troops after the war commenced."
Without quibbling about chronology : either way, the American plan was flawed, and it is now being corrected. At least, that's what they're trying to do.
See, if Turkey forbade passage before the war begun, then the plan was based on something that wasn't there! (Imagine the Kuwaiti government forbidding passage of troops!) If Turkey forbade passage after the war begun, then the plan was flawed because it was executed without having secured one of its basic assumptions.
Denying that the plan was flawed (over-confidence, over-simplification, lack of understanding of basic human attributes such as the will to defend one's homeland, etcetera) is at the very least counter-productive.
Central Command has to give daily press briefings and, thus, conduct also a "press war". The Generals cannot admit the plan was flawed and so they find themselves in a lose/lose PR position. Daily briefings, like daily progress reports in a business, can be shortsighted, awkward affairs -- and I should know, I'm in the business.
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