we defeated germany and japan - decimated them. did we do that in iraq? OK, you can make the case that this wasn't required as part of the initial invasion. But then even after that, we were reluctant to use acute US force as needed. not indiscriminate carpet bombing mind you, but a hell of alot more force then we've seen so far, especially in the sunni triangle. even to this day, we don't do it. we know material (IEDs, weapons, people) is coming in from iran and syria - do we bomb the border region? no. and on and on.
I don't know who made these decisions - my own sense for some time is that Bush has been poorly served by the decisions of the pentagon generals - Abizaid, etc. He should have been replacing them some time ago, but for whatever reason - he hasn't done it.
we've placed all out bets on the iraqis being able to come up to speed on security and political agreements. and they haven't done a very good job of that. they've made progress, but its slow, and with the american media grinding a negative message into the sheeple everyday, the political clock on being able to sustain our efforts in iraq is running out.
I don't know who made these decisions - my own sense for some time is that Bush has been poorly served by the decisions of the pentagon generals - Abizaid, etc