I'm guessing the War On Terror, then, is an existential measure of our will to win.

Use in American context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_legend

It was too obvious when Bush and Cheney called terrorism, "A war that will not end in our lifetimes."
You can't have war powers without a war. So why not a fake war that never ends because it's not real? Perfect.
Could you imagine Ike talking to the troops before D-Day and saying, "We're going into Normandy tomorrow. A lot of you are going to die in this invasion but I want you to know, if you had lived to be 100 we still wouldn't be done winning this war. Now go get 'em."

So you have real police state-style powers proposed based on a war that never ends. It's as phony as the War on Christmas, the War on Drugs, and the War on Obesity.
How did we go from front lines to buffet lines?

But here's the chilling part: Once you have been taken into custody for whatever reason, you have no recourse, no chance to defend yourself. Your life in custody or out depends solely on the whims of a vast security apparatus.
But don't worry. Everyone will be freed the minute the war ends.

Well, taking this to its illogical extreme if you want to elect new leadership you could be an enemy of the government in power a la Iran.

Jack comments: . .What a disgrace to the men and women who have fought for our freedoms.

So true. I often think of this, whatever happened to our country and the people of our country that it has come to this?

We cannot take for granted our freedoms and I believe that we have. Taken all, and enjoyed the freedom but for the most part have not given back a whit in order to keep what we had. Citizens need to be responsible and give some movement towards keeping our freedoms, instead of expecting to be free forever. Perhaps the notion that we are number 1 in the world and will be forever has been imprinted on us to such a degree that people feel they will always have freedom and are entitled.

Some excerpts from link below:
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-7373-0-5-5--.html
The Post reported: “After the Sep. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush gave the CIA, and later the military, authority to kill U.S. citizens abroad if strong evidence existed that an American was involved in organizing or carrying out terrorist actions against the United States or U.S. interests, military and intelligence officials said. The evidence has to meet a certain, defined threshold. The person, for example, has to pose 'a continuing and imminent threat' to U.S. persons and interests.”
“This extrajudicial execution of human beings constitutes a grave violation of international human rights law and, under certain circumstances, can also constitute a war crime under the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949,” said Francis Boyle, University of Illinois professor of international law at Champaign.
“In addition, the extrajudicial execution of U.S. citizens by the United States government also violates the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution mandating that no person "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Boyle said, “The U.S. Government has now established a ‘death list’ for U.S. citizens abroad akin to those established by Latin American dictatorships during their so-called ‘dirty wars.’”
He claimed President Bush “reduced the United States of America to a Banana Republic waging a ‘dirty war’ around the world in gross violation of international law, human rights law, and the laws of war. It is only a matter of time before the United States government will establish a similar ‘death list’ targeting U.S. citizens living here at home.” He added that, “As someone who used to teach Constitutional law, President Obama knows better.”

Where will this lead? If we say anything against our country or U.S. interests, who is to decide this? Are U.S. interests corporate interests? Does that mean that we could not speak out against Monsanto because that is a U.S. interest? Eventually, we cannot speak out against our Congress? This needs to be stopped now or we will become prisoners within our own country. The curtain is wide open now for all to see that Congress will not stand up for the American people. The set up is to protect Congress and Corporations, no matter what they do, if we protest them, would we be considered an enemy?

I so hope I am wrong about this. I may just be looking out to bitter end possibilities at this point. It just doesn’t look good.