US occupational forces are simply not in control of the situation - they cannot protect Iraqi gays even if they wished to (which I doubt). Whatever the actual interests of the US administration in Iraq is, it is
not creation of a democratic state. Like in many other cases, US diplomacy and intelligence have effectively supported tyranic and inhumane regimes, if only they acted in compliance with (assumed) US interests in the regions. We shall not forget that in the "freed" Afghanistan the islamic law (Sharia) is explicitely mentioned in the constitution as
the corner stone of jurisdiction, and this means death to gays and to apostates, with government having actually no means to intervene.
"It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, when we're in a fledgling time like this, to go in and say, 'Here's these issues that are going to repel 80 percent of the population and this is what we want to inflict on you,'" he said. "We're trying not to get into too many values judgment type issues and just do the right thing."
This clearly means, American troops do not care about "democracy" and "universal values" - they simply must ensure their own safety and functioning ifrastructure in the region - either for the economic or for the military purposes, or both. At the end, this campaign was never meant to be a humanitary action.