Lawrence Di Rita, the acting Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the plan was still to bring the 3rd Infantry Division home this fall, and that there had been no change in the overall plans for the division. He said Pentagon officials were focused on ensuring an orderly redeployment of forces.
Of the Army's 10 divisions, about half - the 3rd Infantry, the 4th Infantry, the 101st Airborne, the 1st Armored Division and a nearly division-sized assortment of smaller units such as a brigade from the 82nd Airborne and the 2nd and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiments - are deployed in Iraq.
Even the approximately 150,000 soldiers - backed by the Air Force, Navy, Marines and troops from other countries - are not enough, many members of Congress say.
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The gaps often are filled by Army Reserve and National Guard units called away from civilian jobs.
"What are we doing here?" said a Rhode Island National Guardsman on an overnight patrol in Fallujah that had come under repeated attacks of rifle fire and rocket-propelled grenades. "They got the Special Forces, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored Division, the 101st Airborne, the 4th Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment," he said in his robust New England accent, "and the 115th M.P. Company of the Rhode Island National Guard."
Spc. Patrick Camp was more blunt.
"We don't want to be here anymore," said Camp, whose company left for the Gulf on Feb. 7. "I don't think even God knows when we're leaving."
It's a sorer subject in the 3rd Infantry's 2nd Brigade, which was credited with bringing the war to an early end by seizing Saddam's palace complex in a pitched battle and was then sent to quell a growing uprising in Fallujah.
The 3rd Brigade is already in Kuwait, on its way home. But the soldiers of the 2nd will remain beyond their expected tour there because Central Command considers Fallujah too insecure to allow them to pull out before a similarly large and heavily equipped unit can replace it, officials said.
"Absolutely they're disappointed. And you wouldn't expect anything else," said Lt. Col. Eric Wesley, the brigade's executive officer. But, he added: "There is not a morale problem. ... It is only a morale issue if this unit cannot go to its next mission and perform as effectively."
Even if the storied "Spartan" brigade finishes this mission with its morale undiminished, its affection for the Pentagon's civilian leaders might not fare as well.
"Tell Donald Rumsfeld the 2nd Brigade is still stuck in Fallujah," said Sgt. Siphon Phan, "and we're very angry."