Republicans see Obama's vow to end to "war on terror" as retreat President Barack Obama's pledge to wind down many aspects of the Bush-era "war on terror" is facing strong opposition from some leading Republicans in Congress, setting up what is likely to be one of the defining political disputes of his administration. Senior Republicans criticised Mr Obama's speech as a "retreat" from the fight against al-Qaeda and a serious underestimation of the risks that the US still faces from Islamist radicals. "The president's speech will be viewed by terrorists as a victory," said Saxby Chambliss, the leading Republican on the Senate intelligence committee. In a pivotal speech on Thursday, Mr Obama warned against a "perpetual war" and called for a more careful discussion of the nature of the threat from terrorism. In contrast to George W. Bush, who promised that the "war on terror" would not end "until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated," Mr Obama attempted to describe the enemy in a more limited and nuanced manner. "We must define our effort not as a boundless "global war on terror" but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America," he said. Arguing that "not every collection of thugs that labels themselves al-Qaeda will pose a credible threat to the United States," Mr Obama warned: "Unless we discipline our thinking and our actions, we may be drawn into more wars we do not need to fight." Mr Obama's attempt to narrow the scope of the fight against terrorism was denounced by a number of Republicans who consider the battle against Islamic radicalism to be a generational, almost existential struggle. "The enemy is morphing, it is spreading, there are more fears of conflict today than there have been in several years," said Lindsey Graham, Republican senator from South Carolina. Our allies are more afraid than I've ever seen, our enemies more emboldened. John McCain, the former presidential candidate said: "We're still in a long, drawn-out conflict with al-Qaeda." The Arizona senator added: "To somehow argue that al-Qaeda is somehow "on the run" comes from a degree of unreality that is really quite incredible. Al-Qaeda is expanding all over the Middle East, from Mali to Yemen and all places in between. Senior Pentagon officials said last week that the "war on terror" could last for "at least 10 to 20 years" and that they supported maintaining the legal authority which permits military action against suspected al-Qaeda terrorists anywhere in the world. After he defended the use of drones to kill Americans who had become al-Qaeda leaders, Mr Obama was criticised from a different direction by Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican with libertarian sympathies. "I am glad the president finally acknowledged that American citizens deserve some form of due process," he said. But my preference would be to try accused US citizens in a court of law for treason. The argument over the scope of the "war on terror" that Mr Obama is trying to restart has been present for most of the past decade. In the 2004 election, after Democratic candidate John Kerry said that "the war on terror is less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation," Mr Bush retorted that "it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers." There were some signs that Republicans were more divided about Mr Obama's renewed pledge to close the prison facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Referring to the continuing hunger strike, Mr Chambliss said closure would send a message that "if they harass the dedicated military personnel enough, we will give in and send them home." However, Mr McCain said he was willing to work with the president if there was a "coherent plan" for closure.