Are you feeling safer yet?

By Weekly Archive On Jul 24, 2007

Osama bin Laden. Where, oh where, can he be?

In the spring of 2003, as President Bush was busy sending the nation into war with Iraq, reporters repeatedly asked him about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. Was it wise to start another war, they wanted to know, when the leader of al-Qaida — the main target of the war in Afghanistan — was still on the loose?

With typical disdain, Bush dismissed any questions about bin Laden as irrelevant. "I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and don’t care. It is not important, and it is not our priority." He added: "I am not truly concerned about him."

He should have been. In a stunning admission of failure, the Bush administration admitted this week that the war on terror is a total bust. After almost six years since Sept. 11, the creation of a massive new government agency, the expenditure of billions of dollars and the loss of thousands of lives in the so-called "war on terror," a two-page National Intelligence Estimate released by the White House asks the question every American wants to know the answer to: Are we any safer?

The answer is: No. According to the government’s own report, al-Qaida has regrouped and rearmed and is stronger than ever; Osama bin Laden is still in charge; and the threat of terrorist attacks on American soil is growing. We are right back to where we were before 9/11: Al Qaida, led by bin Laden and al-Zawahri, hiding in the mountains on the Afghan-Pakistani border, and plotting terrorist attacks against the United States.

In other words, everything President Bush has told us about the war on terror is false. He said the terrorists are on the run. They’re not. He said their leadership was disbanded and dysfunctional. They’re not. He said we’re safer. We’re not. He said as long as we’re fighting them over there, we’ll never have to fight them over here. He’s wrong. Dead wrong. The problem is, because of his incompetence, we’re the ones who could end up dead.

The NIE also points out that the CIA warned President Bush, early in 2003, that diverting American forces to Iraq could actually strengthen Osama bin Laden by giving him an opportunity to reorganize and rebuild. Which is, of course, exactly what happened. But their advice fell on deaf ears. To his discredit, and our misfortune, Bush eagerly believed tales of weapons of mass destruction as a reason for going to war, while ignoring warnings of what might happen as a consequence.

Ironically, the administration’s National Intelligence Estimate on terror may well backfire. Released the same day the Senate began debate on the war in Iraq, it was intended to portray a resurgent al-Qaida as a reason for keeping American troops in Iraq. Instead, it may have the exact opposite impact: convincing lawmakers, and the American public, of the folly of invading Iraq in the first place.

The NIE proves that the war in Iraq is a costly mistake. It’s not part of the war on terror; it’s a gross distraction from the war on terror. On George Bush’s orders, our military abruptly shifted its operations from where the terrorists were to where they were not — and let Osama bin Laden off the hook.

There were no al-Qaida in Iraq before we invaded Iraq. We opened the door for them. And those al-Qaida sympathizers in Iraq today are not, as the president daily proclaims, "The same forces that attacked us on Sept. 11." They’re a ragtag gang of Johnny-come-latelies, wannabe terrorists targeting American occupation forces — while the real al-Qaida, under Osama bin Laden, still thrive, unmolested, in the mountains of Pakistan, planning their next round of attacks.

It’s the final installment in a long list of Bush failures. There’s no doubt he screwed up on health care, stem cells, jobs, global warming, immigration and the war in Iraq. But at least, we thought, he was on top of the war on terror. Now it turns out he screwed that up, too.

After reading the administration’s own National Intelligence Estimate on terror, Bush should be charged with dereliction of duty.

Bill Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a new book, "How the Republicans Stole Religion." His email address is: bill@billpress.com. His Web site is: www.billpress.com.