  We review arguments that supersymmetric QCD with $N$ colors and $N_f \ge 0$
massive quarks confines. We explain that this remains the case for small soft
breakings and small supersymmetric masses for any quarks. These results
continue to hold at large $N$. We then consider these theories with large soft
breakings -- real QCD -- describing the problem in terms of the direct
computation of the linear potential between a heavy quark and antiquark. We
provide naive arguments that confinement persists, and then give a more general
treatment. The features required for the naive arguments are generally believed
to hold at large $N$. Extending them to finite $N$ requires only mild
assumptions.
