Who are we fighting in Iraq?

In my Vietnam War class yesterday, my teacher talked about the different forces we fought in Vietnam. Then he mused an afterthought about Iraq, "...whoever we're fighting there."

Who are we fighting there?

The people who burned and kicked the corpses of four American contractors in the Iraqi town of Falluja this week were not armed insurgents or foreign fighters.

Children joined in as jubilant crowds played with the charred bodies, dragging them like trophies through the streets of a town overwhelmed by hatred for the occupying forces.

The government is able to point to polls that tell us how happy Iraqis are to have us there, but how believable are they? And even if the majority of Iraqis are happy with the occupation, will that feeling last? We can't fight a whole population if they turn against us, we learned that lesson in Vietnam. And we certainly can't fight children just on moral principle.

Are we really winning over Iraqis with this?

One tank rumbles through Baghdad with "Bloodlust" painted on its barrel. Another says "Kill them all."

And since Saddam did not have WMDs or connections to al-Qa'ida, all I can think of is the famous line from Clerks, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" Yes, Saddam was a brutal dictator and world class asshole, but wasn't there a better way to dispose of him than this?