"Dick Cheney may be the most successful terrorist of our time."

well, there's something we might agree on, Peter.

Yes, as you say, it IS no longer a standard 'war' that we are fighting, and in one sense (as Obama suggested) one that is not 'winnable' in the sense of WWII, where entire regimes 'surrender'.

As long as basic hatred, fueled by distortions of religious principle, can provide a pool of young would-be martyrs, stuff will happen! Still-- people expect a president to **do something**, and some vague ideological statement of altering "imperial foreign policy of the last 60 years or so in the Middle East." simply will NOT, by itself, impress the folks a president needs in order to get elected, even if that IS part of his overall strategy!
   We NEED intelligence, and we NEED to do what we can to disrupt the staging areas of the terrorists, and we NEED to also make **some** attempt to identify and stop the most obvious ways a Jihadist group can cause random panic using disturbed, expendable young suicide bombers. Obama is not dumb....he follows the pundits,as well as listening to his paid advisors... and he IS in a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' game of trying to do all this while still giving a teeny bit of attention to the economy, the environment, and a dozen other silly little issues.
I see why some folks are impatient...but Obama is as close to sane and smart as I have seen, and I am scared shitless of someone like Kucinich or Huckabee or god forbid, someone like Inhofe or *shudder*, Jim DeMint getting elected and flailing about with one of their narrow-minded pet notions!

You don't like what Obama is doing? Give him a chance to work things out! It's a complex recipe he's cooking, and too many folks are demanding quick "Hamburger Helper" solutions to their hunger.