I think Micah was confusing the Iraq war with the "war" on terrorism. It was a big thing in the 9/11 insurance lawsuit that eventually ruled the bombings weren't acts of war and so the owner got to collect insurance.
The reason we're probably not holding a huge parade is the war was never in our proximity. World Wars, Civil Wars, etc all meant that the losing side would basically get shafted, and so the civilians on the winning side rejoiced because they won't be getting fucked over. This wasn't really the case with the Iraq war, so not much to celebrate publicly. Also, the "war" part (toppling Saddam's regime) finished pretty quickly, all this time it's been reconstruction and fending off insurgents. Also, Americans are obviously skeptical because it's been promised for so long.
As far as "were we at war,"
not technically. The Congress didn't make an official declaration of war. Neither were the Vietnam War nor the Civil War.
I think the reason the US has troops in Germany is not for occupation, but because part of the deal was that Germany isn't allowed to have a standing army, so it has other countries defending it. The US has stationed troops in different countries, not necessarily because of occupation.