Boys, you have to understand that operations like 9-11 are not launched in weeks, it took a couple of years to move all the pieces around the map to make them happen. Terrorist organizations can't launch an intercontinental strike by cutting an order for their nearest carrier task force like we do and having it happen in a week. War for them is conducted at a far different tempo than any of our people outside the covert intel community ever deal with, or at times seem to even comprehend.
That is to say, a Dem WAS President when UBL first set the wheels in motion, and certainly there was no reason to believe Manbearpig wouldn't win the next round from his point of view, so he probably expected there to still be a Dem in the White House when the plan came to fruition. By the time it turned out that Bush would be President, the parts were irreversibly moving. The fractious post-election litigation and claims of stealing the election probably even encouraged them, as a foreigner would see us as hopelessly divided and indecisive about our direction after that.
The inherent weakness of definite Presidential terms and the term limits means that we have an extremely tough time undertaking any difficult or expensive task that will take more than three years to complete, but UBL & Co. unwittingly played into the one big strength of our system, which is an almost unique one among democracies - our President does not serve at the pleasure of Congress, unlike a Prime Minister and Parliament, so as long as he gets the Electoral College votes to be seated, he acts with the full power of Chief Executive for four full years. He does not ever have to fear a 'No confidence' vote from the Congresscritters, the electorate has the only vote that really counts.
UBL also made the basic mistake that foreign powers like the WW2 Axis made, which is to think our internal political catfights are a sign of basic weakness, like we were the French or something equally useless. No, no, no...these vitriolic squabbles are a sign of our basic combativeness, not weakness. We just love conflict so much that when we don't have someone overseas to fight, we have endless internal slapfights to keep the blood going. As soon as we have a chance to focus on kicking some highly-deserving foreign ass, though, that slacks off drastically and we jump into our weasel-stomping boots!
