There is only one way to win against an insurgency. That is to crush it with an iron fist. To pursue the insurgents relentlessly, to give them no shelter, no respite, no haven. This is how the British crushed Shinn Fein in the 1920s and it is still the textbook strategy for a counterinsurgency. Trouble is, we're too nice. When we kill civilians we take the blame. The HELL with that. Civilian deaths should be on the heads of the enemy that put them in harms way.
It's a real frickin' pickle. If we leave, Iraq will become an America-hating, terrorist haven again - a platform for terrorism. Our strategic objective in taking out Saddam was to eliminate that exact same threat. It shouldn't matter if they become a democracy, as long as they're not a threat to us.
I'm almost with Savage in suggesting we ought to let Saddam be back in charge if he agrees to work with us like we did in the old days. I'm sure he'd be amenable to any reasonable arrangement.