It is suspected that the only way to really put a stop to them is to kill or capture the leaders, such as Osama.
If you fight for honour, and the other fights out of desperation (I saw someone here misunderstand Armok: The desperation he mentioned was that of seeing no other option left), the desperate one probably wins. Sun tzu even knew this, and advised to always leave an escape route for the enemy army. Because if they can see no escape, they fight out of desperation, and will fight ten times as hard. There's nowhere to go for a lot of people, especially now. The US has, with the help of my country as well, alienated lots of people in the world, who now see no other option then to fight the invaders of their soil, the rapers of their daughters (yes, it may have happened once, but that's enough for some), the killers of their mothers (collateral damage is to be expected).
Continuation of the war is only making it worse, and
increases the chances of terrorism. Terrorism is an act of desperation, it is the only way a small group of people can hit a large group of people. No, they are not going to fight fair, because it wasn't a fair fight to begin with.
"But they started it!" you would say. Well, yes and no. Open hostilities and mass casualties, yes. But do you remember Saddam? And the rulers of Saudi Arabia who are not much better than Saddam was? The US was/is keeping those oppressors in place, with money, weapons, and WMD's (Saddam used gas he got from the US as a present to annihilate entire Kurd villages. He got that gas to use in his war against Iran, by the way, who therefore also hate the US).
Now how to fight an invisible enemy, one much larger than yourself, far away, who by pulling the strings, is still responsible for your and your family's suffering? You try to scare him with a big boom and some bluff. It worked, but not as they had expected. And now, there's no way back.
Back to the wall, no way out. The bully is coming for you. Do you whimper in a corner, or lash out with all you've got?
That is what strife is about to face, that kind of enemy. I do not envy him.