At least they don't have to shout "bang"....yet

[Ironside]

You are right, because there will NEVER be world peace, as much as we may desire it, we must be prepared to defend ourselves. And what do we care if a crappy little country like Iran gets intimidated? We have to make our intentions known to the world.

Is your intension that the "will of the US" is to do this?

The U.S. has to be in a position where other nations will fear a war with them so much that they would never dream of attacking. THEN the U.S. can prosper. The U.S. has been steadily declining as a world power just as its military has.

Because you're already there...

Bush messed up, too, but he did a heck of a lot more good than bad. We don't need to have the largest military in the world...simply the best. We certainly do NOT have one large enough now.

What you do lack is boots on the ground for a (relativly) civil occupation in unruly territory, and way more where it matters, politicians that doesn't have "guts" to deploy the amount required (and that's been a severe issue since the invasion).
To get much more troops you would require a paradigm shift in the requitment of troops in the US.
You could hold Iraq by a little more uncivil occupation style, but that would make Bush's speech-writers focusing a bit on freeing the Iraqi people from thier worldly possessions and liberating them from the fragile crust known as mortality.
It would also make my first statement false...