You are correct in that President Reagan didn't have a war on terrorism to deal with.
My point is that the Iranians were afraid of Reagan so much so that the moment he was sworn in they released the American hostages that Iran had held for what a year and a half.
My other point is that even the DemocRATs aren't afraid of President Bush. They know he won't strike back at them.
He should and could have held their feet to the fire many times in the last 6 years and instead has tried to play nice to no avail.
The Democrats aren't, but I would argue that the Islamicists know they can push him only so far. Thus, some of the leaders of the terrorists fled to Iran when we began increasing the number of troops. And we haven't had another attack on our own soil.