Well, I happen to think that Lincoln made a mistake, too. But that's neither here nor there. The biggest difference I can see is that Lincoln was fighting a tooth-and-toenail war with another organization. He had well-defined goals (preserve the union). This 'War on Terror' is less like the Civil War and more like the War on Drugs or the War on Poverty, and those have been going on for decades with no end in sight. In essence, Lincoln said 'when we win the war', and Bush says 'whenever'.