Neither Bush nor Obama would dare kill the goose that keeps laying the golden egg for the miltary industrial complex. Besides the nation building experiments in Iraq and Afghanistan never had anything to do with fighting terror.
There's more profit to be made for the likes of General Electric, SAIC, and all those other military contractors that make up the MIC in a neverending global war than a quick victory for the United States.
According to the January/February 2003 Multinational Monitor:
Each major element of the George Walker Bush administration's national security strategy -- from the doctrines of preemptive strikes and "regime change" in Iraq, to its aggressive nuclear posture and commitment to deploying a Star Wars-style missile defense system -- was developed and refined before the Bush administration took office, at corporate-backed conservative think tanks like the Center for Security Policy, the National Institute for Public Policy and the Project for a New American Century.
Unilateralist ideologues formerly affiliated with these think tanks, along with the 32 major administration appointees who are former executives with, consultants for, or significant shareholders of top Defense contractors, are driving U.S. foreign and military policy. The arms lobby is exerting more influence over policymaking than at any time since President Dwight D. Eisenhower first warned of the dangers of the military-industrial complex over 40 years ago.
It is not just industry-backed think tanks that have infiltrated the administration. Former executives, consultants or shareholders of top U.S. defense companies pervade the Bush national security team. Exploiting the fears following 9/11, and impervious to budgetary constraints imposed on virtually every other form of federal spending, the ideologue-industry nexus is driving the United States to war in Iraq and a permanently aggressive war-fighting posture that will simultaneously starve other government programs and make the world a much more dangerous place.
The overarching concern of the ideologues and the arms industry is to increase military spending. On this score, they have been tremendously successful. In its two years in office, the Bush administration has sought more than $150 billion in new military spending, the vast majority of which has been approved by Congress with few questions asked. Spending on national defense is nearing $400 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2003, up from $329 billion when Bush took office. SOURCE
What purpose does the ghost of Usama Bin Lazarus serve? To spread radical Islam? Naw, something more basic and all American than that. He exists only to maintain and increase America's defense spending.
You might think in red white and blue but the arms traders and their partners in government only think in one color. Green!
There's more money in long wars than short ones.
I certainly agree with the statement that the Bush administration was controlled by the Neo-Cons and that their moves were planned in advance by Far Right think tanks. This even went down to the recognition by Paul Wolfowitz of the Center for a New American Century that it would take a "new Pearl Harbor" to get the American people to support the invasion of Iraq which was their stated objective as far back as 1990 I believe. 9/11 fit the bill quite nicely.
However, I would be hard pressed to argue that President Obama is a Neo-Con or that he is guided by their principles.