U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with Fox News Sunday that had the U.S. been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, in through Turkey, more of the Baathist regime would have been captured or killed. " The insurgency today would be less if we had entered from the north via Turkey, the invasion from the south had enabled many insurgents to evade capture in the north. It allowed the insurgents to just dissipate into the communities."
 

At the time of the invasion, the U.S. had planned to enter northern Iraq from NATO bases in the south east of Turkey, but this was rejected by Ankara and U.S. forces did not enter from Turkish territory.