"But hey, the US had a Democratic president back then. Does that give you a clue?"

Hmm, if we had a Democratic president then he/she would simply write the Iraqi constitution?
As I said: "Now, it could have been faster, for instance if we simply handed the Iraqis a constitution and said "this is what you going to follow"; we could saved at least a year of time, if we had taken this route."

You could be right. But to be fair to the Dems this is different era and different circumstances.

Btw:
"The wording of the Potsdam Declaration—"The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles..."—and the initial postsurrender measures taken by Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), suggest that neither he nor his superiors in Washington intended to impose a new political system on Japan unilaterally. Instead, they wished to encourage Japan's new leaders to initiate democratic reforms on their own. But by early 1946, MacArthur's staff and Japanese officials were at odds over the most fundamental issue, the writing of a new constitution."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Japan

And
"After both chambers had made some amendments the House of Peers approved the document on 6 October; it was adopted in the same form by the House of Representatives the following day, with only five members voting against, and finally became law when it received the emperor's assent on 3 November. Under its own terms the constitution came into effect six months later on 3 May, 1947.

And "In the morning of 2 September 1945, more that two weeks after accepting the Allies terms, Japan formally surrendered."

So it was a year- or year and half to get the constitution agreed upon as binding. And that was the fast trak approach. And it took them over 90 days to decide to take this fast trak approach.