President Bush didn’t have the political backing to do what was necessary to actually win in Iraq, and he had zero ability to articulate what needed to be done in order to generate that backing. We won in WWII because our enemies were virtually incapable of continuing resistance even if they wanted to. I don’t think we had the political will to do the same in Iraq.
I don’t mean to disparage the troops who fought in Iraq. They fought honorably. It’s not their fault they were hamstrung from the beginning.
The war was won in about three days. What followed was an occupation / police action / nation building, waste. How do you "win" that??? The keyboard Pattons called it "war" for political reasons.