On July 16, 2003, “In his first news conference after being sworn in as [General Tommy] Franks’s replacement [as head of Central Command], [General John] Abizaid summed up the situation in Iraq, as he saw it. ‘I believe there’s midlevel Baathist, Iraqi intelligence service people, Special Security Operation people, Special Republican Guard people that have organized at the regional level in cellular structure and are conducting what I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us,’ he said. ‘It’s low-intensity conflict, in our doctrinal terms. But it’s war, however you describe it.’ ”
– Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, A Time of Our Choosing, Page 278