Airborne took part in one... Freaking one airdrop during Iraq. Everything else was ranger and special forces even those are limited. Once you hit the ground you become infantry with a chute, which means you have the same limitations as infantry. And I would argue more limitations as your still carrying around a chute while infantry does not, which means they can move faster.

After your initial drop, your effectiveness quickly drops, while mechs retain a higher level of effectiveness. They are faster, have more fire power, and are harder to kill then a trooper. I wasn't even mech and I know that.

My how airborne and 1st armor do love to point to WWII don't they... That was their glory days, when they were credited with most of the victories. You however seem to forget that your different then those WWII troops. That you have more dead weight with your iba alone. That you yourself said your assigned support to build those bridges or you have to take a bridge in order to cross. That taking a bridge usually means taking extra time to first go to the bridge then to target. While the bradlys can just ford the river and straight line it to target.

You want to know who took the credit for the collapse of the Iraqi army/air force? The airforce thats who, they used a shit ton of airstrikes to destroy pretty much all major targets and then ground troops went in to secure.

The rest of Iraq was spent fighting people dressed as civilians with AKs and IEDs, that why 101st was assigned humvees and didn't participate in a single combat drop. I'm not even sure how necessary it was for the 175th to drop, it might've just been so that they could claim they did it.