Three Years in Iraq

I'm a little late, but we recently reached the three year mark in Iraq. What do we have to show for three years, billions of dollars, more than 2,000 American military deaths, and some 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths (1,000 of those are in the last month alone)?
Let me say, up front, that I think our actions regarding Iraq and Saddam Hussein were a mistake. There were many alternatives. That said, things will be a lot worse if we just leave now. I also think that democracy, schools, etc. Are a good thing for Iraqis. But let's look at the big picture.
Yes, there have been two (I think) free elections in Iraq, and they've got their own constitution. Last week their parliament met for the first time. Do you know where they met? In the green zone, that concrete fortress in the middle of Baghdad, the only safe place in Iraq for whites, Christians, or their supporters (the parliament) (it should also be said that another group of our supporters, the Iraqi police, don't have the luxury of hiding in the green zone, they have to walk the streets just like our soldiers, but they aren't nearly of the same quality and firepower). In my mind, this kind of takes the wind out of the whole idea's sails. Really, should an elected legislative body have to be protected from its people? The fact that it does says something's not right. I don't blame the Iraqi people, unless you count the insurgents (who just keep multiplying).
The major problem we have in Iraq now is the insurgency. Whenever you kill one, five more are recruited. And they are slowly bleeding our forces. What bothers me is that conservatives will say "See, those insurgents got a convoy today with an IED, but we responded and killed 30 of 'em. I told you, Iraq is crawling with terrorists and we're killing 'em by the dozens." There's nothing factually wrong with that statement, but the terrorists weren't there until we made the place a haven for them. It's too late now to just kill them all, because it can't be done. We need to take steps like increasing public relations, giving Iraqis better security so that they don't need to carry assault rifles, and give them a reliable supply of the basic services we enjoy. This would hopefully improve our image with Iraqis, and the insurgents would have major recruiting issues.
As it is, all we've got is a president and a secretary of defense who don't really care what happens, so long as they can keep up the charade of building democracy while paying their friends in the contracting business millions and billions of dollars to do nothing. What we're doing now isn't fair to ourselves, our armed forces, or Iraq.