In order to reduce the pockets of resistance, the US Army adopted tactics like:

• curfews
• checkpoints
• the seizure of documents
• raids to effect the confiscation of "illegal weapons; location and apprehension of subversive groups of individuals; checking individual identity and travel papers, particularly of male civilians; and the seizing of illegally possessed or operated motor vehicles." These were called "SWOOP" raids.

This is a pattern of activity not very different from Iraq. The occupation of West Germany lasted 8 years and involved 13 military police brigades in addition to the regular Army forces deployed to deter an attack by Warsaw pact forces, in a country 2 1/2 smaller than Iraq and predominantly populated by Europeans.

At present, an average of one US soldier has been killed for every day since major combat ceased. If this rate were to continue unabated for ten years, it would begin to equal the number of civilian deaths experienced in one morning on September 11, 2001.