You want to know specifically what has to happen to return control of Iraq to the Iraqi people.

That would be to wait 2 years for Bush to end his presidency.

Bush does not want the failure to end up on his watch. So he will spend blood and money to supress the civil war in Iraq until he is gone from office. That way his legacy will not be the pictures of the helcopters leaving from the roof of the embassy to use a vietnam analogy.

Especially considering that Bush has claimed there are "benchmarks" that the Iraqi government needs to make, but has failed to define what they are. The solution in Iraq needs to be solved by Iraqis. There needs to be negotiation and resolution to outstanding issues that are plaqueing the country. For instance, the distribution of oil wealth needs to be defined, so that the sunni areas feel they will benefit for a properous future. The security of various areas needs to be trusted, even if that means sunni police sunni areas and shiite police shiite areas. This very well may mean revising the constitution to allow more independent states. Then there is the basic fact that the presence of the US is disrupting in many ways. I personally think that the US needs to leave before the country can stabilize to begin with. There will certainly be some factions that want a democracy to fail and a radical Islamic government to take over. Even after our departure, there factions will still revolt against the central government. If the majority of the people and the central government can then contain this revolt, the establishment of the new government will be complete and the reasons for much of the violence will stop. But the government needs to resolve the issues that are preventing it from being as widely supported as it should be.