The problem is cost and troops. I do blame some of the president's advisors for this one. Wolfowitz was bragging right as the Saddam statue fell that we would be scaling back to 30,000 troops in country by the fall. He really believed that the Baathists would just give up.
The problem as I have seen it, from sources that I believe are non-biased, is that we won too quickly in the south. We basically only did structural damage in the north, but not much damage to personnel.
It was always one of my worries. Some of Saddam's people are so evil, that there is no place for them other than in a grave. The people who were abused by these murderous scum, are not going to forgive and forget. These Baathists are stuck. They can't all just blend in, and let bygones be bygones. They have every incentive to keep attacking us, and hoping our will falters.
In their place, (if I was a murderous scum sucker like them), I would be doing the same. Unless they get a genuine amnesty,(which in itself is unacceptable) there really is no reason for them to quit fighting a guerrilla war.
A guerrilla war takes time, it takes money, it takes bodies. Wolfowitz was wrong. We need help from other nations now that it has devolved into this. The president is doing right by our troops by asking for assistance. Losing face is less important than losing any troops unneccessarily.
"Why can't we all just get along" -- Rodney King.