I was kind of hoping for permanent bases in Iraq but an end to most combat operations. We had permanent bases and relative stability in Germany by 1947 with no major issues of accountability after that, and in 2011, still have most of those permanent bases along with relatively friendly relations, and one small German base in the desert southwest.

I really thought the way to go about this was going to be to just build our own high-cost city out in some open desert part of Iraq and while it would be high cost, it would be distant enough from their existing infrastructure that once it is built, it is more or less out of the way of the locals but gives the US a staging area in that region. The public would cry about the cost of building the city, but once built it would largely be supported by transparent taxes on oil revenue.

Yeah, free dictator removal services are definitely not going to be a significant part of America's future any more. Too costly, too troublesome.