From the Rooftops

This is something every American must realize. Reach out and tell the guy next to you. Call your mother. Bug your wife. Email everyone you know.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department said on Thursday its April 29 report that the number of international "terrorist" attacks and resulting deaths fell last year was wrong and both figures had in fact risen.

The admission dented the claim by some U.S. officials that the report provided evidence that Washington was winning the "war on terrorism," whose success is critical to President Bush 's reelection strategy.

The actions taken by this administration over the last three and a half years have placed you and me, our friends and loved ones--our children, in the deepest peril. Bush likes to speak of moral clarity and the certitude with which he wages his imaginary war on terror, while increasing threats and global destabilization on a heretofore unseen scale. This certitude, whether based, ultimately, in ignorance or lies, has been proven deadly false.

Still this clarity is perceived by voters as some unshakable truth, and as of the middle of May, Bush still polled high in his handling of the war on terror. It is patently untrue, and State's own report makes it abundantly clear. The policies these...people have pursued have done nothing to make Americans any safer and have instead put us at ever greater risk.

I'm from Brooklyn. I've never been what you'd call an appeaser, not in my own life, nor in my foreign policy beliefs. I always have been, however, a firm believer in active engagement. Sometimes, in my more foolish years, that amounted to a kick in the head or a punch in the face; as often as not it was a matter of dialogue.

I do not suggest we shrink from attacking al Qaeda. Far from it. Had we pursued bin Laden and al Qaeda with the same ferocity and singleness of mind with which these fools have forced this occupation upon both the Iraqi and American people, there's good chance we'd have made great strides against what is, in essence, a loosely connected, though far reaching, criminal enterprise. We did not go that route. No, we didn't. Instead we gave Osama his wildest dream and invaded an oil rich Muslim country that posed no threat whatsoever to America herself. We've increased not only al Qaeda's recruitment efforts, but also the stakes at which its members feel they are playing.

And now we learn:

Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "very disturbed" that errors had made it into the report but denied the numbers were manipulated for political benefit.

When the report was released, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said it provided "clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight" while State Department coordinator for counterterrorism Cofer Black hailed its "good news."

Boucher said the department learned of the report's errors in the first week of May and began an investigation. He said a May 17 letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and frequent critic of the administration, spurred its efforts.

He said the State Department asked the Terrorist Threat Integration Center to review the numbers. Preliminary indications were that it would show a sharp increase over the previous year in incidents and resulting deaths.

So, we should be expecting the Good Mister Armitage to call a press conference to let us know that there is clear evidence that Bush's War on Terror is a miserable failure endangering the safety of Americans everywhere, with ripple effects that will last a generation or more. Any day now.

In any case, do not let this news go unspread. This is information that must be disseminated. Bush's facade as a Strong on Terror president is the Big Lie around which all of their further lies are predicated. Ever since the opportunistic grab they made for the heart of a wounded country, the World Trade Center still a jagged smoking hull, lying even then, this has been the leg they try to stand on. The cold hard numbers will kick that leg out from underneath them. Share this news.

Now, if you must call attention to the fact that terrorism now is at its highest level in 20 years, and that that previous period would have actually been during those heady, wondrous, optimistic, Go America!, Iran-Contra, Money For Nothing & The Chicks Are Free Reagan years, please, please, please, just wait until Monday. It's only respectful after all.