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Terror is an emotion, terrorism is a tactic. "War on terror/terrorism" is a metaphor. The people making policy know that. The point is not to eradicate either, but to make terrorism so difficult to carry out against the U.S. that catastrophic terrorism(i.e. 9/11) is effectively impossible. This was never going to be a war waged only militarily - that was said at the outset. We threw the Taliban out of power through a combination of military action and political maneuvering with the various factions in Afghanistan. We also managed to keep Karzai in power through diplomacy and luck, NOT simply by becoming his enforcer.
As it stands, we have a mostly democratic government in Afghanistan and a pro-Western leader there. Al Qaeda has not been able to strike the U.S. directly, though it has struck our allies. Osama remains at large but is his ability to carry out attacks seems greatly diminished. The Taliban is resurgent and this will be a challenge in the coming years.
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