We are an “occupying force” in the eyes of the Iraqi people and you cannot
tell them otherwise because they are not conditioned to play to political spin
like Americans are. There is nothing wrong with being an occupying force; that
is what we were in Germany and Japan. As long as we can continue to make
progress in rebuilding the infrastructure such as the power plants, we will
prevail. I know that sounds like a weird objective, but envision your life
without electricity or flushing toilets. Basic things we take for granted, but
are essential to our standard of living. We have the ability to bring the people
normalcy, it will just take time. We take steps each day, just sometimes we have
to take one backwards due to the foreign fighters and insurgents.