I don't think the Japanese had any real concept of private property and free enterprise after WW2, they were still a feudal society. It can happen but it won't be easy, we could fail to 'win the peace'. The risk/reward justifies the attempt.
Appeasment is always doomed to failure. Where American, bring unique value to the equation is our desire to help rather than exploit. This is an instinct that our enemies and most of the world for that matter doesn't understand.
We need to do the right thing here as wekk as in Afganistan and show the Muslim world that there is a better way.
America is the only country in the world that has the moral clarity and faith to make the attempt.
"I don't think the Japanese had any real concept of private property and free enterprise after WW2, they were still a feudal society." I'm not a historian by any means, but I am certain the Japanese culture was much much different than Saddam's Iraq.
Also, Japan's government was not in direct possession of 90% of the countries wealth (oil). There was no huge wealth incentive (like the State owned oil in Iraq) for the criminals, parasites, and power mongers to return to in the post war Japanese government.
Suggesting what we were able to do with Japan after WWII might work in Iraq is naive, in my opinion.