terrorism is the boogeyman that the administration needs to justify it's policies, much in the same way the devil is the boogeyman the church needs to keep the flock in line.
i've always felt 9/11 was more of a "defining moment" for the Bush adminstration than it was for the country as a whole. it was not unprecedented in scale - we have been massively surprise-attacked before. nor was it unprecedented in concept - politically motivated terrorist attacks have been occurring in this country for 50 years. (probably more, if i researched it). so this "defining moment" that the neocons are so fond of has become a blank check for a political agenda that neatly wraps up the complex world into a simple, neatly packaged, and easily digested dichotomy: good vs. evil, us vs.them, you're with us or against us etc.
it was a rare moment of candor last week when Bush said we will never win the war on terror. of course, he back-pedalled immediately, because this kind of candor undercuts the whole binary concept. and Kerry, who could have used the opening to introduce some rational long-term strategic thinking into the discussion, instead lapsed into reactionary knee-jerk "gotcha" mode, further highlighting his inabliity to frame an intelligent alternative to the Bush policies.
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