Our Grandfathers knew what needed to be done in WWII to preserve their way of life - the complete and utter annhilation of Germany and Japan.
So if we do as you advise and completely and utterly annhilate Iraq, what, exactly, do we win? Iraq is well on its way to complete and utter annhilation, and what have we accomplished by taking it there? What is your overall goal? What do you hope to achieve by completely and utterly annhilating Iraq? Please explain to me how this WWII analogy is not completely and utterly insane?
-Interdicting terrorists at the borders of Iran and Syria.
The Pentagon and the Whitehouse have known for a long time that the fighters coming from Syria and Iran are only a small part of the problem. The real problem right now are the Sunni and *expletive deleted*it militias.
-Working to strengthen the current elected government.
The problem with that is that the al-Maliki government is just a front for the *expletive deleted*it militias and strengthening that government only strengthens the *expletive deleted*it militias and increases the violence rather than decreases it.
-Hunt down terrorist cells, including the remnants of Saddam's Mukhbarat.
That's a tall order, somewhere on the scale of curing cancer, but a worthy goal none-the-less.
-Promoting building the economy so people are too busy to become involved in terrorism and have too much stake in seeing the country fall apart.
You'll never even begin to rebuild the economy until you can ensure security, and at the moment there seems to be no light at the end of that tunnel.
To do what you suggest and to deal with the elephant in the room you didn't mention--the sectarian fighting--would require a massive effort on our part. It would require the type of manpower our military could only provide right now if there was a draft. It would require the re-motivation of our military leadership. It would require such a huge portion of our national treasure that there would be nothing left. It would effectively bankrupt our economy much like the Afghan war did to the economy of the Soviet Union. Morally we owe it to the people of Iraq to do this, to sacrifice our wealth and the lives of our young people in order to rectify the situation we have created, but I can't see how it would be possible to motivate the American people to do these things at this late date.