Are We Winning The War On Terror?

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Well, I suppose that depends on how you measuse it.  Let’s look at three possible ways.

(1)  Al Qaeda

These were the guys that attacked us on 9/11.  If we’re winning the war on terror, one would hope that there are fewer of them now than there were five years ago.

A simple graph, based on recent research by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, funded by the Department of Homeland Security and other government grants, provides the truth:

Alqaedamembers_2

That’s an increase of 150%.

Not to mention the fact that bin Laden hasn’t been caught yet, and the trail to find him has gone cold.  (Then again, the Bush Administration says that capturing “bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism”, so that explains something).

So, al least by that metric, Bush cannot claim we’re winning the war on terror.

(2)  Iraq

Some say that Iraq is the central front of the war on terror.  It’s not, but let’s assume it is and see how the war is going based on that metric.  This data came out yesterday from the non-partisan GAO:

Iraq_attacks

Hmmm.  Doesn’t look good there.

(3)  What about Afghanistan?

Yeah, that was a success story in the war on terror.  The Taliban heading up that country were state sponsors of terrorism.  And we went in there can got rid of the Taliban.  Then we went to Iraq, leaving Afghanistan to, um —

Taliban_attacks

… um, make a come back.

So, to recap:

  • A 150 percent increase in the number of Al-Qaeda members in the world while we’re focused on a civil war in Iraq
  • Attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi forces and civilians are skyrocketing, despite assurances from the White House that things are going just fine in Iraq
  • Our neglected troops in Afghanistan are facing a 1,200 percent increase in Taliban attacks and a 600 percent jump in suicide bombings.

This is all you need to know for the upcoming elections.