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Actually, I think we have been making mistakes all along.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I actually thought some of this long before we reached the current stage...

We should have attacked Syria and Iran as soon as we defeated Iraq; now they're sanctuaries and quartermasters for our enemies in Iraq.
We should turned the Shiites and Kurds loose on the Sunnis. We should have also made a point of exterminating the upper levels of the Ba'ath party in Iraq and seizing their assets.
We should have told Pakistan that we would operate cross-border into the tribal areas from Afghanistan in pursuit of the Taliban and that, if they opposed us, we would annihilate them.
We should have killed every rioter we possibly could during the "flushed Koran" and "Cartoon" incidents. If muzzie radicals are stupid enough to form a compact target, we should take advantage of it...
We should have hunted down terrorist recruiters, wherever they went (including Germany, the UK, and Italy), snatched them, interrogated them (with torture if necessary) and killed them; in any case, preaching jihad against the US should tantamount to suicide, not just for the imam, but for his entire family (and maybe his mosque...).

Right now, I think that we're headed for situation similar to Vietnam - the enemy is supplied and funded from countries we're not willing to confront, so we can't exterminate them; all we can do is prop up a weak government that is likely to collapse if we leave.

The sad part is that, unlike the Vietnam war where that supplier was a nuclear power, we can TAKE Iran and Syria (and Pakistan if necessary). We can't occupy 'em, but we can turn 'em into deserts and go home.

"We should have turned the Shiites and Kurds loose on the Sunnis."

With the exception of the above I generally agree with you. When we took Baghdad we switched to the Vietnam scenario giving the enemy sanctuaries. We are at war and we should act that way. Our enemies cities should be smoking ruins and their will and ability to fight eliminated. Just like Germany and Japan in WWII. Sadly, there is no other way.