George Washington was widely praised for disbanding the Continental Army after dispelling the British, and also declined a third term as President despite unflagging adoration from the public.
Times have changed, and some of this idealism has perhaps been lost to pragmatism over the years, but this is the golden legacy that the General and the other officers of the Executive are willfully squandering in the pursuit of a few terrorists.
† Hence the old joke that progressives want the government in their business but out of their bedroom, and conservatives want government out of their business, but in their bedroom.