Bill Delahunt: “I do not think, based on the information we are hearing ahead of time, that anybody thought Iraq was going to be…”

“I do not think, based on the information we are hearing ahead of time, that anybody thought Iraq was going to be anywhere near as tough an egg to crack as it has become. We did not have a rotation policy at that time. We were just going to go in, the people were going to throw flowers at our feet, and everybody was going to welcome democracy and we were all going to go back home. But I think we really became very surprised by the amount of resistance we have run into since. The number of deaths that has been inflicted on our troops, and it happens every day, and that has a very, very eroding effect on the morale. Believe me, when someone is shooting at you and you cannot shoot back, I know from experience because I have been through that.”