I agree with the "too many years" part. We brought the Nazi regime and Empire of Japan to their knees in less time. The reason we are having problems in Iraq is that we are too damn sqeamish about killing civilians. Had we simply cordoned off the Sunni Triangle, Tikrit and Basra, checked everyone who wanted to flee, and turned the rest into ashes, our fight there would have long since ended. We killed 100,000 Tokyo civilians on a single night in May 1945 without benefit of a nuke. In Iraq we sent our brave men door to door like Avon ladies to avoid "collateral damage". Why? To assuage an "Arab street" which will always hate us and never have democracy? 400k perhaps 500k more "civilians" needed to be killed in Iraq.
The "too many lives" part is ludicrous. We lost twice as many men on Iwo Jima in 4 weeks as we have lost in Iraq in 4 years. All lives are sacred, but in the history of warfare, these losses are very small.
We killed 100,000 Tokyo civilians on a single night in May 1945 without benefit of a nuke.A minor correction - it was the night of March 9-10, 1945.
14.7 square miles, as I recall, burnt to the ground.