"I have a question for you, now, more of a rhetorical nature. Eventually even a wildfire runs out of things to burn or encounters rain or snow, and so ends. What if this battle goes on and on and on? Where is the line? At what point, if this becomes Palestine all over again, do we throw in the towel, send off the sympathy cards and go home? Is that possibility even on the clipboard? "

Anything is possible. But having space aliens landing can't be said to be on anyone's clipboard. If Iraq was a forest fire, the fire would be completely contained. The situation in Iraq at the moment doesn't resemble anything like "becoming Palestine all over again". It's possible that it could develop into potentially "becoming Palestine all over again".
The best way to describe Iraq is it's a death trap for terrorists; Iraqis know what oppression is, and oppression is not the coalition forces.
Now, we can fail if we try to make Iraq into something it's not, but if we focus on helping the Iraqis and we don't give up, we will be successful- which means Iraq will not "become Palestine all over again".
What is becomes exactly is unknown, that's up to the Iraqis to make.