This is what it comes down to. From today's Washington Post:
Six years after the Bush administration declared war on al-Qaeda, the terrorist network is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and planning attacks, according to a new Bush administration intelligence report to be discussed today at a White House meeting.
The report, a five-page threat assessment compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center, is titled "Al-Qaida Better Positioned to Strike the West," intelligence officials said. It concludes that the group has significantly rebuilt itself despite concerted U.S. attempts to smash the network.
As the CIA's deputy director for intelligence, John A. Kringen, told a Congressional committee:
"We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications," Kringen said.
Nearly seven years after the September 11 attacks, and over five years after the Bush Administration decided it was less important to find and bring to justice those responsible for those attacks than to instigate an unneccessary, illegal, and immoral war against a country that had nothing to do with them, al-Qaeda has regrouped, rearmed, and grown in strength. Let me repeat that: nearly seven years after the September 11 attacks, those responsible for them are re-established and growing in strength!
Of course, we've known for five years that Bush Administration bungling allowed Osama bin Laden himself to get away. As the Washington Post reported, in April 2002:
The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge.
Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border. Though there remains a remote chance that he died there, the intelligence community is persuaded that bin Laden slipped away in the first 10 days of December.
After-action reviews, conducted privately inside and outside the military chain of command, describe the episode as a significant defeat for the United States. A common view among those interviewed outside the U.S. Central Command is that Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the war's operational commander, misjudged the interests of putative Afghan allies and let pass the best chance to capture or kill al Qaeda's leader.
Yes, Tommy Franks. Last seen speaking on Bush's behalf at the 2004 Republican National Convention, before receiving his Medal of Freedom.
And, of course, the Iraq War has been a boon for terrorist recruitment. As the New York Times reported, in September of last year:
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.
The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
Bush's presidency was made when a patriotic population coalesced to support their Commander-in-Chief after the worst terrorist attack in the nation's history. He used that popular support to politicize literally every aspect of government. He used it to launch an unrelated war that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, and made America an international pariah. But the one thing he didn't do was the one thing that should have been done: catch and bring to justice those responsible! Instead, they grow stronger. And those who enabled them grow stronger. As the BBC reported, last month:
The Taleban in Afghanistan are changing their tactics to mount more attacks on the capital, Kabul, a spokesman for the militant group has told the BBC.
The spokesman, Zabiyullah Mujahed, said Taleban were recovering after Nato had infiltrated the group and killed some of its leaders.
But more people were volunteering to carry out suicide bombings, he said.
And they're growing stronger in nuclear-armed Pakistan, as well. As the New York Times reported, two weeks ago:
The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was warned this month that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly spreading beyond the country’s lawless tribal areas and that without "swift and decisive action," the growing militancy could engulf the rest of the country.
The warning came in a document from the Interior Ministry, which said Pakistan’s security forces in North-West Frontier Province abutting the tribal areas were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies.
"The ongoing spell of active Taliban resistance has brought about serious repercussions for Pakistan," says the 15-page document, which was shown to The New York Times. "There is a general policy of appeasement towards the Taliban, which has further emboldened them."
Sometimes we are so overwhelmed by the unprecedented incompetence and moral depravity of the Bush Administration that we don't even know where to begin to focus. I would suggest that this is where to begin. Say it over and over. Tell it to every Bush supporter you meet. Tell it to your local and national media outlets. Tell it to your Congressional representatives:
George W. Bush let the September 11 attackers get away with it! George W. Bush is letting them grow stronger! George W. Bush is a clear and present danger to our national security!