The State Department issued its annual terrorism report today. It's not good news.
Al-Qaeda has rebuilt some of its pre-Sept. 11 capabilities from remote hiding places in Pakistan, and terrorist attacks in neighboring Afghanistan increased 16% last year, the Bush administration said Wednesday.
More than 22,000 people were killed by terrorists around the world in 2007, 8% more than in 2006, although the overall number of attacks fell, the report says.
About 13,600 non-combatants were killed in 2007 in Iraq, the report says, adding the high number could be attributed to a 50% increase in the number of suicide bombings. Suicide car bombings were up 40% and suicide bombings outside of vehicles climbed 90% over 2006, it says.
In Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, al-Qaeda and its affiliates remain "the greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners" despite ongoing efforts to combat followers of Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to the report.
"It has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, replacement of captured or killed operational lieutenants, and the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri," it says.
Look, this number ticks upward every year. The citizens of the world, including the United States, have become more vulnerable every year. And that's according to our own State Department.
You can dress up this pig any way you want, but the numbers say it all: our strategy for winning "the war on terror" has not been effective. Any reasonable person would judge the effectiveness of a strategy to fight terrorism by a reduction in terrorism. Pretty basic, I would say.
But the numbers speak for themselves.
What we should expect from our government are professionals who can modify strategy and tactics to changing circumstances, and those professionals should expect to be held accountable for their success (or lack of it). We should expect our government to be guided by a genuine interest in protecting our citizens, rather than adhering to some crazy ideology or an interest in making political points.
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