And obviously the US government and that is the problem. If you don't even have enough confidence in your objectives to come right out state what you want to do, then you're in trouble. It would have taken a mere request by GB in the days following 9/11 to get a declaration of war. It's something that would have helped unite the nation and keep it united, which is absolutely essential when you're fighting a war of attrition. Instead he went around talking about some mythical "religion of peace".
The details of this particular case are inconsequential. It's just plain bad law, but it's the kind of thing that happens when you allow a war to become so unpopular. If we were clearly winning this war and Bush's approval ratings were up in the 70's this case never would have gotten to the high court.
Do you refer to Afghanistan and the War on Terror or the Iraq War?