I agree that now that we're in there, we're stuck there for the long haul (another reason I wish we'd cultivated more allies to share the occupation/rebuilding burden). I'm glad a lot of the soldiers there understand it's not going to be some lightning operation. I'm not sure if the same could be said of the folks back home. I feel like we're still being told that any day now we'll be able to hand things over to the Iraqis to sort out. I wish they would just give a more realistic timeline. Then again, if they were to say up front that it'll take 10+ years at the current spending levels, I wonder if popular support for the war would decrease or if people would hunker down and adjust expectations accordingly.