Well, the government is constitutionally obliged to defend the citizenry. Any President that went on TV and said 'you know, we sort of deserved that due to our past foreign policy, so we should take it on the chin' would almost certainly have been impeached. Now I do see whare you're coming from, and somewhat agree, but I'm making n argument about what's legal as opposed to what's right. I think, for example, that once we withdraw our troops from Afghanistan Congress should sunset the AUMF and define the scope of Presidential authority to fight future terrorism much more narrowly.