It's hard to "win" the GWOT and frighten us all too

Heh, Steve and I are on the same page. I said this myself a while ago, in different words:

But the real significance is that Bush just didn’t know what to do with the question — he wants to boast that AQI is losing, but he can’t emphasize it too much, because if people believe AQI has been defeated, then there’s no reason to stay in the middle of a civil war.

Keeping people afraid serves an obvious purpose: it facilitates the consolidation of power under the "unitary executive" that Bush has been pushing for since even before 9/11. The question is, what has he done with all this power? What has the president done to actually catch the main people behind 9/11 now that he scared people into giving up essential civil liberties under the guise that it was necessary for Osama's capture?

Well...

1. It's been 2223 days since he vowed to bring Osama in, "dead or alive"
   


2. Bush failed to catch Osama at Tora Bora:

U.S. Concludes Bin Laden Escaped at Tora Bora Fight
Failure to Send Troops in Pursuit Termed Major Error

By Barton Gellman and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 17, 2002; Page A01

The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.



3. In 2002, only a few scant months after 9/11, Bush removed troops who were searching for Osama in Afghanistan to send them to Iraq, where Bush chose to begin an immoral war founded on lies, completely unrelated to the war on terror:
   

Shifts from bin Laden hunt evoke questions
By Dave Moniz and Steven Komarow, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — In 2002, troops from the 5th Special Forces Group who specialize in the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq. Their replacements were troops with expertise in Spanish cultures.



4. In 2005, Bush dismantled the CIA office in charge of hunting for Osama:

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden
By MARK MAZZETTI, New York Times
July 4, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.



5. Bush doesn't think much about Osama and isn't worried about him. At a March 13, 2002, WH press conference:

Q Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? ...

THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he's alive at all. Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is -- really indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission.

...

So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I'm more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong...

...


Q: But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?

BUSH: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.

These are your "winners" in the war on terrorism?

I'll stick with the "losers". And please give me back my civil liberties, while we're at it. You're squandering them on nothing at all.