A quagmire is a situation which is hard to get out of and only gets worse the longer you stay in- think Iraq.
At risk of feeding trolls, although I don't automatically assume that new posters are such...
Here is a friend of mine that died in Iraq in '04 as part of the Rumsfeld "stop-loss" deal, and lack of funding for up-armored Humvees, combined with assigned the best trained US State National Guard units to fulfill what would normally be a professional US Military force vs units typically better trained and equipped to deal with natural disasters, civil unrest and the like....
You sound way too young to remember the 2nd Iraq War, let alone the 1st Iraq War, but maybe you should do a bit of research on the topic before posting on certain topics... I will happily send you a reading list on the long and complicated US relationship with Iraq, as well as the two recent wars and occupation of that nation if you would like....
Might take a few days of intensive reading, but hey you should get some extra credit compared to your peers if you actually spend some time doing some research into this topic...
Meanwhile, here's a fallen Hero, who was a good friend of mine from my mid 20s...
http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-eric-s-mckinley/263041
