Personally, I blame Pres. Bush.
Between his statement about “Islam is peace, Islam means peace,” the wimpyness of his response (we had bin Laden’s family in our sights and were too cowardly to pull the trigger) and our idiotic attempts at nation building, I believe that his heart was never in winning the war. We should have gotten the stupid wars over with.
And then Bush passed the office of President to an internal enemy...
Absolutely correct. Bush demonstrated not only critical lack of leadership but advanced a false narrative about Islam that confounded many unsophisticated Americans. The Bush family had become wealthy in their dealings with the Saudis. Remember 18 0f 19 of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, they were motivated and financially supported by the Saudi government supported and protected Wahhabi. Saudi intelligence knew of the plot and never warned the US. Bush overlooked this culpability and instead invaded Iraq, squandering trillions in material treasure, killing over 3,000 brave young America, physically and psychologically maiming tens of thousands more. This deeply hurt the country and made possible the election of the vile Obama. Sorry fellow FReepers but Bush was a disaster at a critical time.