How Goes the War on Terrorism?

by Mary

Not too long ago, the headlines blared that Bush's war on terrorism was working well. And the Bushies had the statistics to prove it. Not. Turns out that the nice report on terrorism for 2003 stopped a little short of the year end. Once the entire year was looked at, the picture wasn't quite so rosy. In fact, it was a darn right bad year in the annuals of terrorism.

Instead, both the number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the department said. Statements by senior administration officials claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the time; the facts that we had were wrong," department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

The report, issued in April, said attacks had declined last year to 190, the lowest level in 34 years, and dropped 45% since 2001, Bush's first year as president. The State Department is now working to determine the correct figures.

Representative Henry Waxman has asked Secretary of State Colin Powell for an explanation for how this wildly inaccurate report was created.

In other terrorism news, it turns out that our government still thinks that the eco-terrorist is the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat. I guess those ELF guys who have been known to burn up precious SUVs in their rampage should be proud to be considered more dangerous than guys like this or this.