"Let's assume Iraq won't get any worse, won't get any better. The status quo will continue to be the status quo.

How long should Americans stay in-country in order to maintain the present situation?"

I don't think Americans should stay in-country in order to maintain the present situation. Instead, I think the miltary should working toward a goal in which our miltary can leave Iraq [which they are doing]. In simple terms, I think is pretty safe to say that leaving now, would have been better than leaving a year ago- because I think it's likely that if we left a year ago, Iraq would now be in a real civil war. And I doubt we would have permanent govt which has been elected- instead we would have the provisional govt still in power [if things didn't get even worse than this].

I'm against the idea of a strategic build up in Iraq- though a tactical build-up to address Baghdad was needed.

I think that what is needed is work with the Iraq govt [regarding US exit] and at this point in time the main "marker" or point that needs to be addressed is Iraq future unity as a country [this is a political problem that perhaps needs to addressed now, or at least a framework as a way it should resolved should be established- and the "problem" of what to do with Iraqi oil revenues is already been at least partially addressed, so it's possible this step has already been "completed"].
Another "marker" is Iraqi relations to Syria and it's boss Iran- this something Iraq needs to address, rather than the US needs to address for Iraq.

But before we leave Iraq, it seems that first we must get to the point of needing less troops in Iraq, rather than apparently being on verge of at least considering increasing troops size in Iraq. Part of this *might be* that tasks which require a long period of time and are using a lot of miltary resources should be reviewed to determine if are still neccessary/doable.

But to briefly answer, I think we should leave Iraq before Christmas next year- by which I mean have less than 60,000 troops in both Iraq and Kuwait by that time. Obviously, it would better if this can occur before this summer, and obviously it could require two years instead one year
I don't think Congress should require [at this time] that President pull troops out of Iraq before his end of office, but I do think the president should consider that is something he must do. In other words a goal to leave Iraq before Xmas is reasonable [though it may not be possible]. A limit as in "damn the torpedos" should be two years.

Now, if it is possible to leave Iraq before this summer, by significantly increasing the force in Iraq, then this would be the correct thing to do- but I don't think this indeed the case.
Instead in general terms I think that less troops allows more time on the ground and what we needed was more time on the ground.