This is nonsence. We have to stay the course and then their WILL be peace. Look what happened after World War 2, our troops in Germany were still being killed everyday by Nazi's.
As a matter of fact, we still had troops in Germany up untill a few months ago. My Uncle served as a Air Force pilot in the Air Force in the early 1980s.
We weren't fighting WWII (at least until the very end where we halted at the Elbe river) as a politically correct "defensive action."
If we were fighting this like a real war, al Jezeera wouldn't be broadcasting in America. Teddy Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Tommy Daschle, and Michael Moore would be under house arrest. We'd be deporting everyone who ever associated with anyone who ever donated money to Hamaas (Cat Stevens is progress!) and we'd be ejecting rich Saudis right and left.
There might be a few smoking ruins in the mideast as well. In fact, on 9/12/2001 there should have been more than a couple.
You can expect more of the same: don't get your hopes up for a "world war 2" style confrontation. We'd be almost done with the war on terror if we were fighting it that way. Either we'd be making real progress, or there would be so few enemy combatants alive who could fight us that it wouldn't matter anyway.
To stay the course, until a place is perfectly pacific, is ludicrous. In that paradigm, US troops would never leave Detriot. The issue is whether there is a reasonable expectation that a government in Iraq could survive absent US military muscle, or at least some end game the US finds acceptable.
We are fighting a RELIGIOUS WAR! Get that through your head. The radical muslims see us as infidels who have taken their leader and invaded their country. They will continue to attack us as long as someone will supply them with weapons and ammunition. The clerics will mention us in every muslim prayer said within the walls of a mosque. We will always be their enemy, 'til the end of time.