I've been guessing that W, Cheney, etc. knew quite well that the Patriot Act was unconstitutional but estimated, apparently correctly, that it would take years

I've been guessing that W, Cheney, etc. knew quite well that the Patriot Act was unconstitutional but estimated, apparently correctly, that it would take years for the SCOTUS to strike down the law and in the meanwhile W, Cheney, etc. could "take the gloves off", go after the Jihaders, and teach them a lesson, not to mess with the big, bad US, that would last 1000 years. Why is it always 1000 years? However at this point it appears that W and Cheney were not the brightest bulbs on the tree because we really have not exactly roasted all the Jihaders. Indeed, OBL could laugh that just a few wacko Muslims sucker punched the US into wrecking its commercial airline system, trashing its Constitution, blowing $3 trillion (net present value) on absurd foreign adventures, killing 4000+ US soldiers and seriously wounding tens of thousands more, and still got run out of Afghanistan like so many before. You know, there's good liberal stuff, good conservative stuff, some places for genuine argument, and then there's just plain dumb stuff. We blew it.