In 177 you said we were fighting off werewolves. The "werewolves" were my ironic suggestion (168), because, of course, all werewolf activity in Germany stopped decades ago. In fact, it appears that there was none of that by 1947, if not 1946.
Whatever reasons we have today for staying in Germany and Japan are not analogous to our staying in Iraq, because in Iraq we do face insurgents.
At issue on this thread is the time it takes for us to pacify Iraq. The clock is still ticking on that one because Iraq is not peaceful. When our presence in Iraq becomes comparable to our presence in Germany or Japan, we will be able to say how long the Iraqi war lasted. But it surely did not last 30 days as was originally suggested, so Vatican's concerns are legitimate.
"In 177 you said we were fighting off werewolves."
No I did not. Read it again.