Having it both ways

It's hard to figure out how this makes any sense at all:

Despite making progress in the war on terror, the terrorist threat to America today may be greater than ever before, senior US officials have warned.

"The enemy - while weakened and under great pressure - is still capable of global reach, still possesses the determination to kill more Americans, and still trying to do so with increasingly powerful weapons," Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday.

We're winning the war on terror.
The enemy is much weaker than they were before.
The enemy is much more dangerous than they were before.

Got that?

Of course, what's going on here is a) we want you suckers to believe that we're competent at what we're doing, so we'll lie to you about how we're winning the war on terror, but b) at the same time we want you to keep on being really really scared, because that's the only way you'll vote for us.