I respectfully continue to disagree. The loyalist didn't get their way in our revolution nor did the fence sitters who hoped that we could, with a few battlefield victories, bargain our way back to equitable terms with England. We defeated England and excepted their surrender. The south during our civil war got less than they would have gotten than if they had not tried to seperate from the Union. We defeated the south utterly and excepted their surrender. Korea is still a thorn in our side because we fought them to the bargaining table and we lost in Vietnam because, though we didnt surrender(we are simply more powerful than Vietnam will ever be) we let them have everything their way because anything for us other than excepting defeat was unbearable. Again, nothing has changed. As for imposing what the US wants on Iraq versus the Iraqis chosing what we want, it really is a matter of what is doable. It looks like, at this point in time, the Iraqis are unable to free chose anything. Its to unstable and has too many belligerent players. It may take imposing civil order on the Iraqis for several decades before they stablize to the point where a democratic govt can stand on its own legs. Why this is unthinkable to even conservatives I do not know. The only reason we will have to be in Iraq for several decades is because we shy away from utterly defeating insurrectionists right now. We utterly defeated Japan and Germany and if then we proclaimed that they all had to wear clown wigs, they would have. If you think thats a stretch think about the fact that the USSR imposed communism on the other half of Europe and they took that up the butt. If we choose not to utterly defeat all enemies in Iraq AND choose not to be defeated in Iraq then we must except that we will be in it for the long haul.
I don't disagree that our presence will be required there for a good long while. After all, we are still in Germany and Japan to this day. However, in those two nations we had a direct beef with the over all populations. I would offer to you that Iraq is very different on that note.
Saddam's ruling regime was the overwhelming minority and that is who we went after, that and our little buddy Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and his merry band of thugs. Even those groups together would constitute a serious minority.
I would offer that comparing the populations of Japan and Germany to that of Iraq would be something akin to comparing apples to oranges.
While imposition of civil order is what is needed, given that culture and Islam itself, I have to come down on the side that 'infedels' cannot do that imposition. Muslims themselves must do it or they will just hold onto the idea that they must resist.
A good pace forward would be for us to continue to hunt al qaeda and the like and see Iraqi forces deal with sectarian fights. This is not to say we cannot aid the Iraqi forces in that endeavor, just that they have to lead it.
If we alone do the defeating, the Iraqis remaining will never feel as if they acheived anything themselves, this is a part they need for long term success, imho.
Kinda like in this example. If a parent buys their child a car they will respect it to point A. If they buy it themselves, with their own money, they will respect it to point B. Point B seeing the car last much longer. See what I mean?