It has been a good try. Really it was. But Iraq will never be Japan or Germany, and the idea that we could invade and reconstruct the country in the same way was always based on blind optimism and ignorance of Arab culture. Our goals were never realistic. All the work of the US and coalition forces may well be undone quickly.
Afghanistan is even more hopless of a project, as I see it, than Iraq.
If there were a Land of Cats, you could invade the country and try to get the cats to form a democracy and police force, but I suspect you would fail. The cats just won't fall in line, and they probably don't want to.