I heard a discussion over this buy neither side really seemed to have a solid grasp on the actual facts. Basically what I'm asking is - was Operation Market Garden a failure because it was a bad move to drop into the Netherlands, or was it just handled so poorly that the battles lost turned the entire operation into a failure.
As I understand it, the entire plan was to end-run around the Sigfried line and open up another path into Germany. However, with the Russians knocking on the door in the East, the Sigfried line had been stripped down and didn't pose as big of a threat as first thought.
It seemed like an unnecessary adventure, especially putting the burden of crossing the North Sea for resupply into play when you're already crossing the English Channel to resupply the bulk of the forces.
So, tl:dr - was Operation Market Garden a bad idea all around, or did it just fail because the German resistance was solid?
EDIT:
^ other answers I've given on the subject
was Operation Market Garden a bad idea all around, or did it just fail because the German resistance was solid?
Elements of both, but the former more than the latter. Even if it had succeeded, the single highway running along the Eindhoven-Njimegen-Arnhem axis would have been insufficient to support a thrust by British Second Army into the Ruhr, and that's not even considering how difficult a battle amidst the industrial sprawl of the Ruhr would have been.
Opening the approaches to Antwerp should have taken priority. The Broad Front Strategy was a sensible strategy, it was the strategy decided upon prior to Overlord/Neptune, and it was Ike's strategy, but it was handicapped greatly by a sudden diversion to support a risky operation amidst strained Allied logistics and stiffening German resistance. The Siegfried Line was undergoing strengthening as the Vorstellung or West Wall, while carrying out Market Garden meant halting major operations elsewhere. Rather than take steps that would allow the Allied armies to act together, ie opening Antwerp ASAP and relieving supply problems, a plan was adopted that would pit one allied army on a narrow front against coalescing German resistance. In short, Market Garden negated Allied advantages at the strategic level and played right into the hands of the German defenders.