It’s more important to not put yourself in the line of fire than it is to not scare the birds, you holler. Besides, quail probably won’t startle with a yell from a distance, they are sitting tight.
I seem to recall resistance from Congress for the larger number of troops, but maybe I’m misremembering. However, the number of invading troops was not the issue, the invasion was quickly done - occupation was the issue. To meet the stated goals, prolonged benevolent (as possible) occupation was necessary - and that the dems whined loudly about
My recollection was that Gen. Shinsecki (sp?) was fired because he was urging 350,000 troops. That is why I called my son for his opinion since he had fought there in 1991. The main problem that Bush/Cheney had was that they needed to fight in the spring (started in March) to get the job done because the summer heat really made it impossible, especially if they thought that protective gear would need to be worn for poison gas. A lot of people don’t realize that summer heat of 110 to 115 degrees is not uncommon. Waiting until fall/winter to build up the much large force would have put the war too close to the next elections, so they had to do it in the spring with inadequate forces if they were going to do it at all. Personally, I think they just should have stuck to doing a more complete job in Afghanistan, where my son also did 2 tours.
If I ever go quail hunting I’ll remember your advice. ;-)