Here's the most overlooked news story of recent weeks. Beyond the clinical headline "Review May Shift Terror Policies," the article basically says what everyone who voted against Bush knows: that the guy's wild, apocalyptic, blinkered foreign policy has done nothing to reduce the threat of terrorism, and has in fact increased it. Case in point is the new training ground for terrorists that is Iraq:
Much of the discussion has focused on how to deal with the rise of a new generation of terrorists, schooled in Iraq over the past couple years. Top government officials are increasingly turning their attention to anticipate what one called "the bleed out" of hundreds or thousands of Iraq-trained jihadists back to their home countries throughout the Middle East and Western Europe. "It's a new piece of a new equation," a former senior Bush administration official said. "If you don't know who they are in Iraq, how are you going to locate them in Istanbul or London?"
And just in case you had any lingering feeling that Bush really cared about national security, the article also notes that administration has left key counter-terrorism posts empty. Five months into term two, and the directorship of the new National Counterterrorism Center is an empty chair, as is the equivalent position at the State Department. That's some GWOT for you.