i wrote earlier about how the bush administration decided not to issue their annual report on global terrorism--something every administration has done since 1985. well, all these reports about suppressing information got a little embarrassing, so the administration reversed its decision and released the report this week.
as i mentioned before, last year the bush administration first issued its 2003 report showing a drop in terrorist attacks worldwide. then, after people noticed certain high profile attacks seemed to be missing, the state department issued a revised report showing the number of terror attacks actually increased, not decreased in 2003. the corrected 2003 report showed 208 separate attacks, the highest number of attacks in the 21 years since the government started issuing the global terror reports.
the 2004 report is dramatically worse. it documents 651 terrorist attacks worldwide, a 313% increase over last year's record-holding number. indeed, according to the just issued report, there there 201 terrorist attacks in iraq alone in 2004, almost as many attacks as there were in the entire world in 2003. the 201 number is also a 913% increase over the number of terrorist attacks in iraq in 2003. note that the tally of attacks did not include attacks on u.s. troops (or any other member of the coalition). also, the number of attacks in afghanistan almost doubled during the same period (from 14 in 2003 to 27).
if the bush administration invaded iraq to fight global terrorism, the 2003 and 2004 reports document a stunning failure. while correlation does not necessarily mean cause, there is no ignoring such stark numbers. any way you slice it, this indicates a miserable failure in the war against terrorism.
the administration claims that methodological changes make it impossible to compare the current report to prior years. however, the report itself does not note any change in methodology, indeed what counts as a "terrorist attack" is established by statute. in short, the "change in methodology" excuse is pure, unadulterated horse manure. in fact, the administration's entire conduct with regard to these reports these last two years looks like nothing more than a CYA operation.
the administration mysteriously gets high marks in the polls for "fighting terrorism" with the american public. but even their own data says otherwise. and not just by a little bit. sometimes i think the only thing the administration is really good at is marketing. welcome to the MBA presidency.
(hat tip to cursor)
