Post WWII occupations
Were successful because we had bombed, killed, jailed and hung the opposition, and controled nearly every aspect of Japan and Germany for years.
We are being very light on Iraq.
As to the plausible, jsut a few moths ago many here were condemning the Bush Admin for not reacting to the merely plausible information about some goofy foreign flight school students.
It was plausible all through the 90's that ObL was planning and executing bigger and bigger stuff. It was plausible all through the 90s' that Saddam was cheating on the cease fire terms.
It is entirely plausible to kick his sorry ass out of power.
And we did.
Ed