we have come here and liberation is in our minds as we destroy the regime and proceed to remove the weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. Liberation is the action that will occur by way of what we're doing in this campaign. The potential threats of others coming in from external countries tells you that the problem is not in Iraq, the problem is the regime and trying to protect itself.

We remain convinced from what we're seeing throughout the country, as we are having more and more success, that the Iraqi people are welcoming the departure of the regime and its destruction. Where we attack regime complexes and Ba'ath Party headquarters buildings, the towns people are helping us, and in fact they're very pleased about that. There is, truthfully, still a degree of "let's wait and see." We have to understand that for decades these people have been severely brutalized by this regime, and they have taken risks before that have not proven to be safe for them to do so. And so there's a degree of caution still that's out there and is entirely understandable, but we mean what we say and we're going to continue with that mission. source: centcom.mil