You need to read the koran. You need to understand what is happening around the world. This is so much bigger than Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is nothing. Start googling on Africa and islam or Asia and islam.
Recruitment propaganda is not needed. That is a specious concern.
This is so not about one group within islam.
Seriously, you need to read the koran.
Rule one when fighting insurgents - he who controls the hearts and minds of the population wins. Strong points surrounded by a hostile population base are not effective. They are doomed to failure.
Study Malay (the British campaign), Vietnam, and the Soviet/ Afghan war.
I haven't seen an affordable or realistic proposal yet to turn the hearts and minds of what is now a large percentage of the world's population.
The only solution I see was posted earlier by someone else. Bomb their military to dust. If needed, bomb their infrastructure to dust. Again, if needed vaporize their population centers.
I don't see islam backing off this time unless we kill 100 million muslims.
I don't see the west doing any of this. It seems rather inconceivable but I see us headed into a second dark age.
It's a lovely world.
So we stabilize Iraq. Please tell me how that is going to make the slightest bit of difference in what is a global problem?
You have an entire population of Sunni muslims, at the heart of the Middle East, who will for generations proclaim their utter hatred for terrorism and the US as an honest broker. You have millions of Shia and Kurds who will testify to the US as a liberator. The way we have defeated al Qaeda and the JAM in Iraq is precisely by winning the hearts and minds of the populace. You will have a functioning democracy right in the middle of Arab central that will put the political heat on the dictators and kings of the region. OBL recognized that the fight for Iraq was existential. He has virtually admitted defeat. You, however, seem not to be able to take "yes" for an answer :^)