The only way the people you know could have thought any such thing would be because they did not listen to the President. He repeatedly and invariably spoke of this being a long war which would take different forms than a typical war and with some actions of which we would not have any knowledge of for years.
Who could have seriously believed this would be short if they had even a slight knowledge of military affairs throughout history and the complexities of this particular political problem? Many of us spoke up here on FR and warned that this would not be over for years and troops will be in Iraq for decades in some force. This was NEVER a secret.
There have been remarkably few mistakes in fighting the war and none which are that significant given the norm. It has not helped by having the Treason Media underline any problem while deliberately ignoring all success. They have worked overtime to obscure the American people's understanding of what has occurred here. This has been consistently counted on by the Terrorists who have repeatedly cast their attacks so as to maximize American unhappiness knowing full well how the Treason Media would faithfully carry their message.
Critics are a dime a dozen and those who really care about National Security should make a habit of shooting down these false and destructive stories which the Treason Media loves to spread. Giving these liars ANY credence even by silence at ANY time does great damage to our National interests. It can not be stressed too often that you cannot believe ANY story it pushes which undermine the President. Just find the subtle twist of the truth which is at the essence of EVERY one of their word bombs.
His PR staff should have advised against making the big fanfare over "major combat operations have ended" statement, because, to the normal person, it sounded like, "major combat operations have ended"...Rumsfeld and Cheney dismissively refering to "dead enders" didn't help either - it gave the impression that the war was wrapped up.
I didn't think so at the time, but I figured at least another year - now that we're into the fourth year, people justifyably feel they didn't get the whole story.
And if a satisfactory story doesn't come from the president, it's going to be supplied elsewhere - the MSM.
This was NEVER a secret.
Not here, but most people do not spend hours on the Web, particularly on this site. Most people get their news from TV. And when the admin. stages an elaborate announcement from the deck of a carrier, that's what most people are going to accept as reality. No one gets to the WH without understanding that basic fact of American life.
Seven or eight generals coming out against a SoD is news - it would have been with Reagan or Clinton or whoever. A "stay the course" or "he's doing a heckova job" type statement is not going to suffice, because people are now questioning the whole story.
Giving these liars ANY credence even by silence at ANY time does great damage to our National interests.
If the generals are traitors or liars or just partisans, the WH needs to confront this. If the WH lets it pass, and only says that "we stand by Donald Rumsfeld", this story is going to fester.