The US is failing in key three areas of the war:

-The US is still providing much of the security for the country and is grossly underpowered both financially and militarily to achieve this and in Afghanistan.
-The Iraqi government has been inefficient at best.
-Failing to rally up commitment amongst the 'Coalition'.

The first one I think is the most important. If the US would deploy large amounts of troops in the area, enough to protect the borders and quell the insurgency then there would be no problem. Prove that we can completely eradicate their leadership and prevent weapons from crossing the border.

Why are we not doing this? It is because of the American democratic sytem. What I am saying essentially is raise taxes, dramatically increase the size of the military, do the above plan and then once finished rapidly scale down the military and lower taxes. When we finish in Iraq and Afghanistan (save, us going into another war) we then pull back and redivert all of the 'War Energy' into developing alternative solutions.

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'May no obstacles arise on the path of enlightenment!
May the enlightened intention of Those Gone to Bliss, past, present and future, be realised,
May I neither be bewildered in migratory existence
Nor I lulled by the solitary quiescence [of nirvana]!
But may I liberate beings throughout the expanse of space!'

- Tibetan Book of the Dead by Padmasambhava

why else are we still there, OOPPSSSS forgot about the reputation of the GOP for the next quarter century.

i agree we need more troops in iraq.
that's one thing i've never understood:
why in 1990, when we were only driving iraq out of kuwait, did we send 500,000 troops,
but to defeat and occupy the entire country in 2003, we only sent 150,000.
always seemed backwards to me.

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Yeah, that would be my single biggest complaint concerning the operation of this current war. I would have sent 750,000 and scaled back if necessary as the needs of our troops changed. Surges are only ways to fix mistakes. I support them because I don't want to leave mistakes, but we could have avoided plenty.

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I think America is finally ready for another president with polio.

Saw a very interesting documentary recently covering my thoughts pretty much on the subject. This guy is pro-American, he uses mistakes and victories of the British Empire as a benchmark for America (since Britain was involved in Iraq and Afghanistan). We have it within us but Ferguson details why it can't be achieved:

__________________
'May no obstacles arise on the path of enlightenment!
May the enlightened intention of Those Gone to Bliss, past, present and future, be realised,
May I neither be bewildered in migratory existence
Nor I lulled by the solitary quiescence [of nirvana]!
But may I liberate beings throughout the expanse of space!'

- Tibetan Book of the Dead by Padmasambhava

no need to say more.