Overwhelming presence at the right time (after we took Baghdad) might have made that association more possible.

All that is left now is to be sure that the government that we support deserves the support and to use our power judiciously to support that government. The time is past for blasting anything that looks like opposition. We should be more selective in choosing targets and use only elite troops and airpower. The public is tired of reading about raw Army recruits being killed while directing traffic or driving a truck, when not a soldier in their unit has ever fired his weapon. I can understand that kind of frustration. It is not the same as being unwilling to pay the price of fighting terrorism.

In Cuba we supported Castro who immediately turned on us when he took power. In Iran allowed the Shah to fall and the new government turned on us. Surely we can learn from this. If we just walk away the same thing will happen in Iraq and any vestige of success will go out the window.Totally abandoning Iraq would be wrong but we must modify our tactics if not our goals.