No one is looking for subtlety here. This war is far, far larger than Fallujah, or Baghdad, or Iraq, and whether we level Fallujah or not makes no difference.
You've pointed to one or two mistakes of our political leaders during war. I could give you ten more, or more if I had more fingers. What's important here is our overall victory. We are winning. We have rocked the world in such a way that it has felt in a generation, and comparable to few others.
You've got to put up with a hell of a lot to be a citizen of this country. But that's also what makes us great.
Not leveling Fallujah is one big mistake. It is a rebel city that should have been demolished into ruins and the rebels now dancing in the streets should have been killed by our soldiers and Marines.
Our "shock and awe" tactics defeated the Iraqi military in 1991 and 2003. Dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively ended Japanese hostilities. When the Romans finally defeated Carthage, their old enemy, they entirely leveled the city and plowed the ground around the city, planting salt so that nothing would ever grow again on that site.
Sean Connery, who played a Chicago policeman turned Federal agent in the movie, The Untouchables, had some lines in reference with dealing with Al Capone that would work with today's terrorists. "You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!" That's the Chicago way, and the American way!