What do you think the post-war occupations of Germany and Japan consisted of? They were nothing but "police actions", too. And the military seems to have handled those situations rather well.
Post-war occupations: isn't that why every branch has a Civil Affairs unit?
After WW II, we controlled the media. We had full censorship of the media. This is what caused a more rapid achievement of our goals.
The police action today in Iraq, without full control of the media, is costing us the lives of our troops and our allies. It is nuts. We should never engage in a war if we do not do everything possible to win the war and then use all the tool to win the peace, with the FULL range of the tools at our disposal.