In a speech at the National Press Club on December 23, 1998, National Security Advisor Sandy Berger said: ” ‘The only sure way for us to effect his [Saddam’s] departure now would be to commit hundreds of thousands of American troops to fight on the ground inside Iraq. I do not believe that the costs of such a campaign would be sustainable at home or abroad. And the reward of success would be an American military occupation of Iraq that could last years.’ ”
– Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, Page 166