A little history about "quagmire".

The Corner on National Review Online: "Before the war fell into a 'bloody stalemate' the Chinese attack across the Yalu River had pushed American forces to the brink of defeat; many large units were surrounded and had to be airlifted to safety, and an entire American division had been shattered and overrun. Communist forces recaptured Seoul after pushing American forces substantially back across the 38th parallel, reversing most of the gains from General MacArthur's brilliant Inchon maneuver. In short, before there was the stalemate Webb refers to, there was first a disaster that needed urgent fixing. "