Again, Did we Win?

Did you catch this line from Obama's speech?

For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of Al Qaida’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken. And some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

What does "most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been defeated" actually mean?  When someone is defeated it usually means they've been beaten or have surrendered.   Did we miss something?

Oddly, this same kind of statement was recently made by the president's 'brain' Valerie Jarrett while speaking on MLK day at Ebenezer Baptist.  She said we can all "rest easy".  Is it just their way of capitalizing on the UBL raid or are they trying to say we've literally won the war on terror?

Saying top kingpins are "defeated" suggests just that--we won.  But again, at last check bin Laden's very dangerous sidekick (it's doubtful he'd want to be called a lieutenant) was still out there in parts unknown, topping the Rewards for Justice hit parade with a hefty bounty.  Not only him, but the following individuals are still unaccounted for: Mullah Omar, Saif al Adel(number two), Abderraouf Jdey, Adnan Shrukrijumah (Jafar the pilot), Abu Du’a (leader of AQ in Iraq, who launched attacks to revenge UBL's death), and Yasin al Suri (operating from Iran to facilitate AQ recruits to the battlefields).

Speaking of Iran, the US Government has recently implied that Iran has been and continues working directly with the enemy that attacked us on 9/11, an enemy Obama promised to vanquish during his campaign.  Nobody seems comfortable asking him what he'll do about AQ working with Iran but nobody wants another war.  That doesn't mean the war is over and we've won.  Yet he seems to be saying just that.  Troops are coming home.

There appear to be two possibilities here. One, we've captured several HVTs since the bin Laden raid and are holding them secretly, and Obama plans to spring them to the public in the coming months to boost his campaign.  Or two, he's just saying this stuff to make it seem like the threat is over in order to justify bringing home troops to free up money to help 'nation build' in America, which is part of his reelection strategy.

Based on the US government's own current information about the state of terrorists/terrorism those two choices would seem to be the only ones. Both are bad, but number one is far preferable than number two, which would be grossly irresponsible and dangerous to boot.  From a political standpoint, just look what happened after Bush stood under the 'mission accomplished' sign.  It's a tad bit surprising nobody is pointing this out.

MORE  1/26/12

Maybe people did notice...

Asked by CBS news anchor Scott Pelley if al Qaeda had been defeated, Panetta -- who as CIA director presided over the operations that led to the death of bin Laden last May -- said the terror group was still a threat. "They're still a real threat," Panetta said. "There's still Al Qaeda out there. And we've gotta continue to put pressure on them wherever they're at."

Maybe Pelley will ask whether Obama believes this or not.