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In this photo taken Wednesday, March 16, 2011, U.S. Army soldiers from D Co., 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, center, watch as Iraqi Army soldiers are timed while reassembling a weapon during training on M1A1 Abrams tanks at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The American invasion of Iraq was only supposed to take a few months: a quick blitz to depose dictator Saddam Hussein, find and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and go home. Eight years later, thousands of U.S. troops remain in Iraq _ and their mission may not be accomplished until far into the future. Just how many will stay is the heart of a tense and hushed debate among U.S. and Iraqi officials who want the fragile democracy to stand alone for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion that began locally on the night of March 19, 2003 _ but fear it could fall apart without military support. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)