Who lost Iraq?

Thomas E. Ricks writes for Foreign Policy :

Iraq’s Shiites were an oppressed people. Now they are not. So why am I not happy for them, rejoicing in their rise?

I was thinking about this over the weekend. I think it is because I believe they were given a good chance to control Iraq, yet failed to grasp the opportunity. The surge did not win the war, but it did achieve a truce. Had Shiite leaders used that truce to reach out to Sunnis and try to chart a generous course forward, they might have emerged in triumph. Obviously, easier said than done. And I know that Shiite elements might have reacted murderously to anyone attempting this sort of outreach. But this sort of difficult reconciliation has been achieved in other countries in the past.T