[x]

Those who speak of democratizing Iraq as we did Germany tend to forget: in 1945, we had 12 million men under arms and four million soldiers in Europe. German resistance disappeared in 1945 with the death of Hitler. There was no guerrilla war against us.

True. Add to that heavy German war losses (and all the other losses of the war and the previous World War) and the cultural ties between Americans and Germans and you can see that Germany (or at least the part under our control) was apt to follow our model in a way that many other defeated countries wouldn't. To take 1945 as typical is a mistake.

Japan's turnaround was more remarkable, but like Germany their defeat came after a long war and we left the emperor in power. The country followed him rather than us (though having someone with McArthur's charisma didn't hurt us).

[Age of Reason]

Yes.

Outside of Japan and Germany and South Korea--where in all of them we still maintain troops to this day--where else have we been successful in nation building long term?

[metesky]

For instance, allied soldiers were still being killed in Germany long after the Nazis surrendered in May 1945. Indeed, some were killed as late as 1949. A 2000 History Today article about the Nazi "Werewolves" a guerrilla/terrorist movement founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1944, which fought the occupying forces of Britain, America, and the Soviet Union until at least 1947. (The History Today article can be found here; it was first cited by opinionjournal.com's "Best of the Web" in this context.)

[Amelia]

Our occupation/stabilization of Germany appears to have taken the better part of 7 years. I'm not sure we can conquer and stabilize Iraq as quickly as we say we can.

[johnb838]

Germany *did* have a resistance against us. Japan was a remarkable case. MacArthur was a remarkable leader, and we were out in what, five years? In Germany, George Marshall was in charge and we're still there. The Marshall plan was opposed by Marshall, btw. At least Ger. is a successful country now. Same with South Korea. I would add the Phillipines and Panama to the list but I could be wrong about those.