Guess you never looked at the Iraqi death toll. Iraq makes a good case study really, things calmed down there due to political manuevering, buying off or otherwise employing the support of large chunks of the populace and etc.. it certainly was not a "military" victory.

Taking control is one thing. Maintaining it in the face of hostile armed populace is quite another.

If you are going for obliteration, then sure - modern WMDs are pretty scary. If you are talking about control, that is still fought out by humans on the ground. In many places, it is hard for a regime to maintain itself if the only way it can maintain control is genocide.

Also the USA has over 300m people. Even 1% of the populace taking up guerrilla arms - thats 3m people. Interspersed with the rest of the populace... for a regime to maintain control in the face of that would be impossible.

You should go read some about modern warfare. Your blanket assertions are quite ill informed.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)