“In the Gulf War of 1991 an attacking force three times the size of the OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom, launched on March 19, 2003] force was employed to achieve the limited objective of driving Iraqi forces out of tiny Kuwait; however, twelve years later, a comparatively small force was employed on behalf of the much more ambitious objective of seizing control of all of Iraq (a country about the size of California) and providing the security necessary for that country’s political transformation. The result in 1991 was a quick and cheap victory. The result in 2003 was the beginning of a costly and unpopular eight-year war (assuming the departure of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011) that could prompt Iraq’s political disintegration.”
– Jeffrey Record, Wanting War, Page 168