Americans Don't Agree "War On Terror" Is Over (Neither Does The White House)

"The war on terror is over," or so claims an unnamed senior State Department official, as reported by National Journal's Michael Hirsh in his recent article "The Post al-Qaida Era."
Cal Thomas, The war on teror is over? Don't believe it, Baltimore Sun, April 28, 2012

Whether or not you want to take an anonymous quote of a State Department official as the opinion of the Obama administration, according the the definition of terrorism the White House established back in 2009, I suppose the War on Terror actually must be over.

Back in August 2009, The Washington Times reported -- White House: ‘War on terrorism’ is over:

It’s official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a “war on terrorism.” Neither is it fighting “jihadists” or in a “global war.”

President Obama’s top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

“The President does not describe this as a ‘war on terrorism,’” said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a “new way of seeing” the fight against terrorism.

The only terminology that Mr. Brennan said the administration is using is that the U.S. is “at war with al Qaeda.”

“We are at war with al Qaeda,” he said. “We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al Qaeda’s murderous agenda.”

Well, with Osama bin Laden dead and Al Qaeda supposedly in shambles, the White House may very well be right--according to their definition--that the war on terror is over.

But just don't expect the American people to buy it.

Rasmussen came out today with a survey that Only 11% Think War on Terror Is Over:

Voters overwhelmingly reject the idea that the war on terror is over one year after the death of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, although most feel his al Qaeda terrorist group is weaker today. But a majority also still thinks a terrorist attack is possible in the next year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 11% of Likely U.S. Voters think the war on terror is over. Seventy-nine percent (79%) say that war, declared after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, is not over. Another 11% are undecided. 

So even those who tend to agree with the Obama administration that Al Qaeda is weaker still feel that the terrorist group is a threat.

As a matter of fact, the Obama administration feels exactly the same way.

In War on Terror Over? AP's Dozier Says 'No,' With Evidence, Newsbusters notes:

If it's so over, then why were government officials referenced in Kimberly Dozier's Associated Press report this evening about the state of Al Qaida a year after Osama Bin Laden's death "on condition of anonymity because they say publicly identifying themselves could make them a target of the terrorist group"?

So the "War on Terror" is not on terrorism in general--it's on Al Qaeda.
And Al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden has been assassinated by the US (as we've been reminded)
And Al Qaeda itself is now all but dismantled.

Yet here is the US, government officials in the Obama administration will not publicly talk about this because--they are afraid of an attack by Al Qaeda.

Guess what?
The War on Terror isn't over after all.

(Keep that in mind the next time you are reminded that Osama bin Laden was killed during Obama's watch)

Hat tip: IMRA

Technorati Tag: War On Terror and Obama and Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.