The enemy know if they hold on they'll be fighting Iraqi forces, ultimately wheter they win depends on Iraq, but you're right, timetables, and a "surge" implies a timetable since "surges" end, are counterproductive. But if we said we'd stay till the job was done, say a decade, no one would believe us. After all, we wouldn't stay a decade in Korea would we?
One thing is that O'Reilly is really hammering the media for out and out sabotage of the Iraq effort. Maybe I am wrong, but I never have seen MSM more brazen in their bias, or hostile than in the lead up to the election. It is worse than Vietnam era bias and it shows no sign of lessening.