If you believe it to be true, then by all means, continue to advocate for the present policy in Iraq. You will find little public support, and little empirical evidence, but perhaps you are right.
Japan was a complete theocratic, emperor-worshipping, militaristic, samuari-sword head-chopping society.
Japan also had a track record of orderly and civil society. Japan also has a homogeneous society. Iraq can claim neither of these.
Ah, yes, the old Ad Populous fallacy, appeal to the masses. The empirical evidence will be in the outcome. What exactly is the timetable you're relying on anyway? 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? I content that we need to give this experiment more time. A previous poster said 10 years, and that my friend is a fairly accurate assessment, in my opinion. BTW, I spent 7 years of my military career in Italy and Germany in the 1990s, 50 years after WWII ended. Just to put the past 3 years in perspective.
Which brings me back to my original point I made on this thread far upstream. We will not start carpet bombing Iraq, or killing massive amounts of people, not with a media and opposition party ready to cry bloody murder over it (as they have been), and a Supreme Court that says we have to give Geneva Convention rights to non uniformed terrorists who have committed war crimes against civilians.
We cannot just leave, because to all of the terrorists, the mullahs of Iran, the zealot muslims who want the Great Satan destroyed, THAT would be seen as an American defeat. They will then be emboldened in their hearts, such as they are, and plan far grander "defeats" to bring to us.