It seems like it was to be able to not be encumbered by civil rights while attempting to solve the problem of terrorism militarily.
the war on terror is/was as real as the war on drugs and the war on christmas
Someone must tell the 200,000+ dead Iraqi civilians that the war was fake.
Strictly speaking, it was, since we never actually declared war on Iraq. Which only makes the whole tragedy a more egregious violation.
Declaring war isn't... Really a thing. Since around WWII. Acknowledging a war has happened, is what the notification to Congress is, and that happened.
> Isn't this exactly what the war on terror was for? To always be able to claim that the US is currently at war?
No, obviously not. That would have been pointless; the US was at war anyway. The US is always at war.