from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
A few days ago, Karl Rove offered a preview Linkof what will be the GOP's primary issue of focus in the 2006 elections; National Security.
Bush and his cabal insist that the way the administration has prosecuted the War on Terrorism has made the world is a safer place. The whole point of "winning" the war is to decrease the number of terrorism worldwide. Yet look at this chart tracking the number of terrorism incidents, domestic and international, since 2003 (the year we invaded Iraq):
The number of terrorist attacks has steadily increased under Bush's leadership. As ericbrewer points out, based on the terrorist database, "the sum of "international" and "domestic" terrorist attacks in 2005 was 3991, up 51% from the previous year's figure of 2639. The number of deaths that resulted from those attacks was 6872, which is 36% higher than the 5066 that occurred in 2004."
So we know that terrorism has increased dramatically under the Bush presidency. But surely, we must be making some progress on the War on Terrorism? The PATRIOT ACT, taking off our shoes at the airport, the Department of Homeland Security--all of that has to have a major impact in reigning in the terrorists, right? Well, not quite. Let's take a look at the numbers.
In 2002, the Bush administration boasted that it prosecuted some 62 cases of international terrorism. The reality? 60 of the 62 "international terrorists" turned out to be Middle Eastern students who had cheated on an English proficiency exam.Link The only other case considered "terrorism" in the traditional sense was that of Daniel Pearle's killer.
Last year, in the summer of 2005, the Bush administration claimed it had prosecuted "over 400" terrorists. But a Washinton Post investigation Link revealed that was an outright lie: only some 36 individuals were actually prosecuted under the terrorism law. The vast majority of convictions cited by the government as successes in the war on terrorism were actually "relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. For the entire list, the median sentence was just 11 months." (For a chart breaking down Bush's "400" convictions by crime, click here Link).
So we're obviously not making stellar headway on the judicial front in the War on Terror. How about the military front? McClellan claimed as recently as yesterday Linkthat we have captured or killed 3/4 of Al Qaeda's leadership.
First, the claim is implicitly ludicrous because it presumes we have a firm figure on the size of Al Qaeda, much less the number of leaders it has. But last year, American Prospect ran down the real numbers:Link
On October 10, 2001, the administration announced a most-wanted list of 22 suspected terrorists, headed by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mohammed Atef, along with 18 other individuals, most of them affiliated with al-Qaeda. On May 26, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller asked the American public to help find seven suspected al-Qaeda members potentially in the United States. Two of these seven had appeared on the original list of 22. All told, therefore, official U.S. government Web sites since September 11 have listed 27 known terrorists.
So how many have been captured or killed? Three.
That's not 75%, that's a paltry 11%. Mind you, the list at the time didn't even include powerful terrorists Mullah Omar and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But what do we expect from a Commander-in-Chief who repeatedly admitted he wasn't that concernedLink with the man who murdered thousands of innocents on American soil.
This Republican government has failed miserably in responding to the 9/11 attacks. Instead of bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice, this GOP administration has instead embarked on a bloated, ill-focused, haphazard game of Risk which has no end, and no winner.
We are just as vulnerable to attack todayLink as we were that ill-fated Tuesday morning four years ago. Indeed, one can argue we're more vulnerable to attack, since we now exist in a hyper-charged environment where every failed missle attack spawns thousands of jihadists, Linkwhere every leashed prisoner turns more against us, and where everyone can spot our weaknesses but our leaders themselves.
A campaign issue in 2006? Bring. It. On.
Most of the information in this post comes from DailyKos or the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge base.
About MIPT;
The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Basesm (TKBsm) is the one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorism-related court cases, and terrorist groups and leaders. TKB covers the history, affiliations, locations, and tactics of terrorist groups operating across the world, with over 35 years of terrorism incident data and hundreds of group and leader profiles and trials. TKB also features interactive maps, statistical summaries, and analytical tools that can create custom graphs and tables. Link
Bush and his cabal insist that the way the administration has prosecuted the War on Terrorism has made the world is a safer place. The whole point of "winning" the war is to decrease the number of terrorism worldwide. Yet look at this chart tracking the number of terrorism incidents, domestic and international, since 2003 (the year we invaded Iraq):
The number of terrorist attacks has steadily increased under Bush's leadership. As ericbrewer points out, based on the terrorist database, "the sum of "international" and "domestic" terrorist attacks in 2005 was 3991, up 51% from the previous year's figure of 2639. The number of deaths that resulted from those attacks was 6872, which is 36% higher than the 5066 that occurred in 2004."
So we know that terrorism has increased dramatically under the Bush presidency. But surely, we must be making some progress on the War on Terrorism? The PATRIOT ACT, taking off our shoes at the airport, the Department of Homeland Security--all of that has to have a major impact in reigning in the terrorists, right? Well, not quite. Let's take a look at the numbers.
In 2002, the Bush administration boasted that it prosecuted some 62 cases of international terrorism. The reality? 60 of the 62 "international terrorists" turned out to be Middle Eastern students who had cheated on an English proficiency exam.Link The only other case considered "terrorism" in the traditional sense was that of Daniel Pearle's killer.
Last year, in the summer of 2005, the Bush administration claimed it had prosecuted "over 400" terrorists. But a Washinton Post investigation Link revealed that was an outright lie: only some 36 individuals were actually prosecuted under the terrorism law. The vast majority of convictions cited by the government as successes in the war on terrorism were actually "relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law -- and had nothing to do with terrorism, the analysis shows. For the entire list, the median sentence was just 11 months." (For a chart breaking down Bush's "400" convictions by crime, click here Link).
So we're obviously not making stellar headway on the judicial front in the War on Terror. How about the military front? McClellan claimed as recently as yesterday Linkthat we have captured or killed 3/4 of Al Qaeda's leadership.
First, the claim is implicitly ludicrous because it presumes we have a firm figure on the size of Al Qaeda, much less the number of leaders it has. But last year, American Prospect ran down the real numbers:Link
On October 10, 2001, the administration announced a most-wanted list of 22 suspected terrorists, headed by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Mohammed Atef, along with 18 other individuals, most of them affiliated with al-Qaeda. On May 26, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller asked the American public to help find seven suspected al-Qaeda members potentially in the United States. Two of these seven had appeared on the original list of 22. All told, therefore, official U.S. government Web sites since September 11 have listed 27 known terrorists.
So how many have been captured or killed? Three.
That's not 75%, that's a paltry 11%. Mind you, the list at the time didn't even include powerful terrorists Mullah Omar and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But what do we expect from a Commander-in-Chief who repeatedly admitted he wasn't that concernedLink with the man who murdered thousands of innocents on American soil.
This Republican government has failed miserably in responding to the 9/11 attacks. Instead of bringing the perpetrators of the crime to justice, this GOP administration has instead embarked on a bloated, ill-focused, haphazard game of Risk which has no end, and no winner.
We are just as vulnerable to attack todayLink as we were that ill-fated Tuesday morning four years ago. Indeed, one can argue we're more vulnerable to attack, since we now exist in a hyper-charged environment where every failed missle attack spawns thousands of jihadists, Linkwhere every leashed prisoner turns more against us, and where everyone can spot our weaknesses but our leaders themselves.
A campaign issue in 2006? Bring. It. On.
Most of the information in this post comes from DailyKos or the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge base.
About MIPT;
The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Basesm (TKBsm) is the one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorism-related court cases, and terrorist groups and leaders. TKB covers the history, affiliations, locations, and tactics of terrorist groups operating across the world, with over 35 years of terrorism incident data and hundreds of group and leader profiles and trials. TKB also features interactive maps, statistical summaries, and analytical tools that can create custom graphs and tables. Link
