War on terror?

On the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 disaster, in his first 9/11 in office, Pres. Obama intoned a solemn speech, and threatened to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida and their extremist allies." Now can someone explain to me in rational terms how this is to be achieved without a "war on terror."
Every responsible person concedes that al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and even if al Qaeda is not directly responsible for many subsequent attacks they are definitely the instigators behind them. Their ideology is now out of the box and has been taken up by many Islamist groups around the world with loose links between them and back to al Qaeda. So a "war on terror" in the international arena is essential if the US is to rid the world of this threat and to defeat al Qaeda.
But, in order not to offend his Muslim allies and to separate himself from Pres. George W. Bush, Obama has ordered the term "war on terror" be dropped from Government statements. According to him it is old hat, it is no longer necessary, it is objected to by Muslims everywhere, and so we must appease them. Let's have a war on terror without calling it by that objectionable name. But the problem is that if you don't really call it what it is and gear up to effectively wage the (nonexistent) war on terror, how can you ever hope to win and prevent the continuation of international terrorism.
The Islamists declared war on the US, and they have no intention of stopping now. They don't make demands and they don't negotiate, they kill. If Obama really wants to protect the American people, as he says he does, then he must face reality. Afghanistan is only a side show to the real war, which is in fact the 'war on terror.'