On February 25, 2003, “Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki had told a Senate hearing that a U.S. force ‘on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers’ would be required to occupy Iraq after the initial combat victory. ‘We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems,’ Shinseki cautioned. ‘And so it takes a significant ground-force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.’ ”
– Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 460