In recent weeks, President Bush and members of his administration have been touting Bush’s legacy by arguing that there have been no terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11.  Yet this administration has a legacy of downplaying terrorist threats and missing chances to weaken or destroy key terrorist groups, especially al Qaeda.  Before 9/11 the Administration ignored warnings from terrorism experts such as Richard Clarke in the run up to 9/11 and did not make al Qaeda a top priority. 

After initial success in Afghanistan, the Administration became distracted by Iraq, allowing those who attacked us on 9/11 to reconstitute a new terrorist safe haven on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and once again threaten the United States.  The invasion of Iraq and its disastrous consequences have acted as a terrorism recruiting, training and fundraising vehicle causing an overall increase in terror attacks worldwide.  Extremist forces in Yemen, Algeria, Lebanon, and Gaza have all become more powerful. A number of bipartisan commissions have concluded that the Bush administration has not done nearly enough to address the threat of WMD terrorism or implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations.  In short, the President’s policies since 9/11 have failed to make America as safe as it needs to be. 

By Turning From the Region that Posed the Greatest Terrorist Threat, the Bush Administration Has Allowed Al Qaeda to Reconstitute

America’s 16 intelligence agencies say that al Qaeda is growing stronger and that the threat emanating out of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border is the most direct threat to American security. The 2006 and 2007 National Intelligence Estimates both concluded that al Qaeda “will continue to pose the greatest threat to the Homeland and US interests abroad.” The GAO, in concert with the unclassified 2007 NIE and State and embassy documents, found that “al Qaeda’s central leadership, based in the border area of Pakistan, is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the United States…” and “…is now using the Pakistani safe haven to put the last element necessary to launch another attack against America into place.” [NIE, 4/06. NIE, 7/07. NY Times, 9/24/06. GAO, 4/08]

There is a consensus among experts that the Bush administration did not treat the threat “seriously enough.”  According to the New York Times, there is “growing recognition among senior officials that the Bush administration for years did not take the Qaeda threat in Pakistan seriously enough…”  As National Intelligence Officer Ted Gistaro has testified before Congress, this inattention has meant that the region has become a “stronger, more comfortable safe haven” for al Qaeda. [NIE, 07/07. NY Times, 8/13/08]

Rather than focus on the greatest threat, the Bush administration has consistently diverted resources away from Afghanistan to Iraq. The New York Times reported that “the White House shifted its sights, beginning in 2002, from counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan to preparations for the war in Iraq… Current and former military and intelligence officials said that the war in Iraq consistently diverted resources and high-level attention from the tribal areas. When American military and intelligence officials requested additional Predator drones to survey the tribal areas, they were told no drones were available because they had been sent to Iraq.” [NY Times, 6/30/08]

Iraq Legacy Has Undermined U.S. Strategy for Combatting Terrorism

When the Bush administration took its eye off the ball and invaded Iraq, it created a recruiting tool and “cause célèbre” for extremist groups. The nation’s 16 intelligence agencies agree assessed that “the Iraq conflict has become the ‘cause célèbre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.” [NIE, 07/07]

Experts do not believe that the Bush administration’s policies have made us safer. Today, only 21 percent of experts agree with the statement that the U.S. is making headway in the fight against terrorism. Overall, 71 percent of terrorism experts believed that “the world was growing more dangerous for Americans and the United States.” [CAP Terrorism Index, 8/19/08]

Fighting in Iraq has allowed extremist operatives to gain hands-on experience and export their deadly skills. Terrorism experts Dan Byman and Ken Pollack assert that “Iraq has fostered a new brand of jihad, providing a place where budding Salafi insurgents gain combat experience and forge lasting bonds that will enable them to work together in the years to come.” [Annals of American Political Science, July 2008]

The U.S. invasion of Iraq solidified and intensified worldwide unfavorable views of the United States, particularly in Muslim nations. In its most recent survey on this topic, the Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that the U.S. image remains abysmal in most Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia.  Favorable views of the U.S. are in single digits in Turkey (9%) and have declined to 15% in Pakistan. [Pew Global Attitudes Project, 6/27/07]

Terrorism Around the World Has Intensified Under the Bush Administration

Al Qaeda affiliates are gaining ground in Algeria and North Africa. Since 2007, al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) - a Sunni group that previously called itself the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) - has been raising its profile in Algeria. The group was responsible for multiple coordinated attacks against targets in Algeria this past August that killed more than 60 people. [BBC News, 8/20/2008. NPR, 8/20/08. Council on Foreign Relations, 7/31/08]

Attacks on the U.S. embassy in Yemen serve as chilling example of al Qaeda’s reach in the Middle East.  In September, “heavily armed militants opened fire on the United States Embassy in Sana, Yemen... and detonated a car bomb at its gates, in an attack that left at least 16 people dead including six of the attackers.” The attack is the latest sign of a growing al Qaeda-inspired Islamic insurgency against the Washington-allied regime on the strategic southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.” [NY Times, 9/17/08. TIME, 9/17/08]

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai are a reminder that not only al Qaeda has been neglected.  The New York Times reports that "evidence unearthed by investigators in India indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba." These attacks have thrown U.S. policy in the region into disarray. [NY Times, 11/05/08]

Gaza has become a haven for extremists. “Gaza is the latest evidence that most of the trends are pointed in the wrong direction. It’s yet another gain for radical forces. It's another gain for Iran. It's another setback for the U.S., Israel and the Sunni regimes,” said Richard Haass, head of the State Department’s policy planning staff in President Bush’s first term and President of the Council on Foreign Relations. [Washington Post, 6/16/2007]

Failed U.S. policies in Lebanon have contributed to the rise of new terrorist groups and the ascension of Hezbollah.  For the past year, Lebanon has been wracked with instability and extremist violence. The Cedar Revolution is a distant memory, new terrorist organizations have emerged, and Hezbollah is ascendant. In 2007, Fatah Al Islam – a group of Islamic militants from various Arab nationalities occupied the Nahr al Bared refugee camp in Tripoli, using it as a base to attack army positions and resulting in the destruction of the majority of the camp. Worst of all, “Hezbollah today stands unquestioned as the single most powerful force in Lebanon.”  [AFP, 1/20/08. Washington Post, 5/18/08]

Bush Failed to Close the Security Gaps at Home

The Bush administration is not doing nearly enough to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. A report released by the House Homeland Security Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee found that the Bush administration has not done nearly enough to implement the provisions of the Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007. [House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees, 9/08]

Despite funding and public support, the Bush Administration has failed to make America as safe as it needs to be. “Emergency responders are still unable to communicate reliably or securely across jurisdictions or in large buildings and tunnels. Chemical plants in major metropolitan area continue to pose an unmitigated risk. Americans ride commuter rail and subway systems that are vulnerable to the kinds of attack that have already happened in Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo and London. Few cities are prepared to deal with the mass casualties that would accompany a pandemic or a biological attack. Radiological materials are poorly accounted for and secured, and making a “dirty bomb” that would contaminate large parts of a city are a very real possibility. The agency charged with finding terrorists in the United States is unable to deploy a modern information technology system and the intelligence community remains incapable of translating the material it collects. Funds to address homeland security have not been allocated on the basis of security needs or as part of a multi-year plan to achieve a specific level of risk and capability. Block grants for homeland security in many places have been squandered, allocated to regions facing little risk or spent without any goal or overall risk mitigation strategy.” [The Forgotten Homeland, 2006]

A recent bipartisan report warns that, absent action, WMD attack in the next five years is “more likely than not.”  The report, issued by the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism chaired by former Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, states that, “unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.” [World at Risk, 12/08]

Bush Administration Actions have Damaged the Legitimacy of U.S. Counterterrorism Policy

Post 9/11 consensus on need to address terrorism has been squandered by the Bush administration’s “with us or against us” attitude.  After 9/11 the world stood united by the understanding that terrorism was everyone’s problem, with the French newspaper Le Monde famously declaring “we are all Americans.”  But as time went on, the Bush administration squandered this historic opportunity, through its misguided invasion of Iraq, its dismissal of European allies, and its detention and interrogation policies. [NSN, 9/11/08. AP, 12/05/05]

The Administration’s indifference to rule of law and basic American values has undermined efforts to curb extremism.  Under President Bush, the White House has trod on some of America’s best principles, doing serious damage to US counterterrorism policy in the process.  Scandals like Abu Ghraib have not only hurt the overall prestige of the U.S., but have delegitimized our counterterrorism policies and aided extremism. [Washington Post, 10/15/04]