True, but that often means you either destroy then enemy so completely and utterly they can no longer wage a campaign of war/terrorism against you. Alternatively, the enemy wins - if not outright, then at least in the form of substantial concessions. The third option is stalemate.
Not at all. The traditional approach in the west, especially western Europe with its history of various terrorist groups & factions has been one of Protect, Penetrate & Politics. To me that is pretty obvious - protect the population, penetrate the terrorist groups and engage through the political process.
Unfortunately, that won't work in the current climate. As much as Tony & George are trying to portray this as good vs evil, people like UBL & Zarqawi are doing their best to portray it as a clash of civilizations with their arguments that the differences between Islam and the rest of the world are intractable and that it is a fight to the death for supremacy.
What we have - belatedly - realised is that to be effective you need a dual approach, that of hearts and minds coupled with biblical violence to act as a deterent. To simply destroy the enemy will not work; Northern Ireland proved that - unrestrained targeting simply produces a Hydra effect - arrest / kill one and the rest pop up to take their place.
To try and engage solely by politics is fine, as long as your enemy has a tangible end state that can be achieved through negotiation. When you are of the belief that anything other than the most puritanical form of Islam is wrong, there is no negotiation. It is an ideological conflict that almost mirrors that of the Cold War - hard action will not defeat a concept or mind set.
As such, you need to wipe off the map those that choose to fight you whilst simultaneously engaging with the potentially disaffected and try and persuade them that beheading every westerner that crosses your doorstep won't necessarilly solve the issue.
Unfortunatley, the situation we find ourselves in now has no stalemate. We will either be fighting for the next decade, or we will manage the problem but not eradicate it, largely due to the approach we are taking at the moment coupled with the lack of understanding. This is unfortunately a win-lsoe situation. Either we persuade (not bomb) our opponent into realising that we can all live together in peace( even if its you stay on your continent and we'll stay on ours) or the war continues indefinately. Both sides are out for a win - a score draw isn't on the cards this time round!