[dyed_in_the_wool]

1) we care more about the freedom of the Iraqi people than they do (something we could only have known in hindsight)

No. Most Iraqis seems to enjoy the idea of being able to marry whoever they want and go wherever they want. Liberty is not an idea that we have a copyright on. Note the numbers of insurgents is somewhere in the neighborhood of @5K. Considering how many million inhabitants there are, this is nothing. What's more, they're openly tring to hide behind women and children and in mosques. That will not help their cause.

2)we are not willing to wage total war until all opposition is removed

I think the military and the President are. I keep pointing out that nobody thought we could beat the Germans or the Japanese in WWII. Eventually we killed enough of them so that they stopped trying to kill us. Why do you think there's a truce in Fallujah? You don't think we're scared, do you?

[Alberta's Child]

Note the numbers of insurgents is somewhere in the neighborhood of @5K.

This actually reinforces one of the main points in his post. If the number of "insurgents" (I put that word in quotes because it's not used correctly in this case) is so small, then the U.S. should simply give every Iraqi an AK-47 and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and pack up our things and go home. It will eventually sort itself out.