One thing is certain. We could continue the effort and expense in Irag for a hundred years and the situation would be the same. The whole Middle East has not moved forwad one iota in the last 2000 years.
So the question is, how long should we continue? Ten, fifteen, fifty, a hundred years or longer?
Democracy, as we know it, will come to the Middle East when camels can recite the Theory of Relativity while standing on their heads.
Time to go folks.
With the exception of that part (or those parts if you want to count Lebanon during those periods the Christians were ascendant) not dominated by Islamics, and especially Arab Islamics (although the Persians and their kin can be mighty nasty too).