[El Gato]

Germany and Japan weren't hostile when we occupied them

Japan wasn't, because in exchange for letting him remain Emperor, and for not continueing to Nuke his country, Hirohito went on the radio, almost unheard of for their God to speak to them directly, and commanded his subjects to lay down their arms and cooperate.

Some Germans however did remain hostile. Ever hear of Werewolves. Much like the few remaining Baathists in Iraq, these were hold out Nazis, Hitler Youth, and SS troops. Of course the Germans did not have nations still friendly to the Nazis on it's borders, as Iraq has at least two nations giving support to the "insurgents"/terrorists.

Different situation entirely.

[Lejes Rimul]

Yeah, I know about the Werewolves. They were never a threat the way the Sunni insurgency is, though, mainly because six years of total war pretty much killed off all the real dedicated Nazis, and the rest were terrified enough of the Russians enough to play real nice with our boys. My objection to the Iraq War is that it's making Iran stronger exactly when we need to be focusing all of America's efforts on weakening Iran. Iran's boys in power in Iraq - SCIRI, al-Sadr, etc. - is the equivalent of Stalin grabbing all of Eastern Europe for himself. We all agree in hindsight that it was a colossal disaster. Patton said we should have armed what was left of the Wehrmacht and let them loose on the Russkies. I'll leave the analogue in Iraq today up to you.

[sheik yerbouty]

My father was in the ETO and said that it took over a year to "mop up".