The present leaders are either incapable to root out the terrorists or are sympathetic to them.
-- Exactly my point. - They either abdicate, become 'capable', or we kill them. No more tolerence of terrorism.
In either case, we need to be present there to replace those leaders who are unreliable, or to assist those who merely need the means to govern. That means the same thing I have proposed: occupational force and a puppet government.
-- Only works with a completly beaten, capitalistic type enemy, as per WWII. You are ignoring the lessons of history, and your own observations on the enemy in your article above.
Also, we shouldn't CARE who the leaders are, as long as they control terrorism & warfare. - If they can't, kill them.
-- The wannabe strongmen/dictator/warmonger types would soon scuttle for cover if such a policy was adopted by us, and/or 'western civilisation'.
A foreign government that is told that it will physically survive only upon certain conditions imposed from abroad is, by definition, a puppet government.