My original contention was that we should have approached the reluctant "allies" like the French to send in Police forces for the occupation after battle, since they were so unwilling to engage in the fighting. It was easy to see that we'd need as many folks in police and nurse's uniforms as we would in US Army unitorms in order to establish a democracy in the middle east. But, since we didn't follow that line of approach, we now have a civil war on our hands. If we were to set our sights again on the police/nurse approach, we might still be able to pull this one off. I think we won the war in Iraq; we just haven't won the peace.
I also think we should simply divide the country. The Kurds deserve their own country, they've proven to be good allies. We could work with them to carve out a section of Iraq, set their sights on carving some territory out of Iran, and then when they're done with that, we can help "negotiate" with our other "allies", the Turks, to secure Kurdish autonomy in what presently eastern Turkey.
That leaves the Sunnis and Shiites to divide up what's left. We would occupy the areas between the two warring factions. Also, the UN/US should occupy the oil-producing regions and parcel out the revenue according to whatever plan they come up with. That gives all the sides something to argue about rather than shooting at us.
Wow, you mentioned bringing the French in, and you didn't get flamed? It's a miracle!
Seriously, though, it's wrong to pretend that the French are afraid of getting their hands bloody. Right now, they're the second most militarized European state (right behind Britain). Germany's economy is 50% bigger than theirs, yet France spends $5B more on its military than Germany. Our ally Poland spends an eighth as much on its military as France. Yes, France has a big history of losing in war (mostly due to incompetent leaders -- the French resistance in WWII did a pretty good job), but they're not afraid to fight.
That said, France doesn't want to fight in a way that will *help us*. Some times it seems they'd rather sacrifice their own national interests if it will help give us a bloody nose. Thus, I would be less surprised to a genetically engineered flying pig in the next ten years than French troops on the ground in Iraq -- unless there was some way that the French felt that having their troops on the ground would give us a bloody nose.
Nice suggestion there but not feasible. If we were to divide Iraq into three parts, that will admit our occupation was a failure and we would be forced to withdraw troops quickly. Once that happens, Turkey will invade Kurdistan and enlarge the "Turkish Empire".