From: "Dave Ings" 

Non-trivial numbers of US armed forces in there "helping". When
the conversation occurred the formal invasion was all but over.

A lot of people (including the person I was talking to) thought the
invasion was the hard part and restoring order would be the easy part. Such
people apparently aren't fond of reading history books.
--
Regards,
Dave Ings,
Toronto, Canada

"Geo"  wrote in message news:4448d7d8$1{at}w3....
> "Dave Ings"  wrote in message
news:44483a2b$1{at}w3....
>
>> I had a conversation with an American citizen about two weeks after the
>> invasion, and I expressed the opinion that the US would be
"in there" for
> at
>> least 5 years. The look of disbelief on their face was amusing
>> (especially
>> in hindsight). Social engineering is hard and unpredictable.
>
> The US army in there 5 years shooting or the US in there helping? Makes a
> big difference.
>
> Geo.
>
>

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