Winning

But remember, we're winning the war on terrorism. It's just that, by "winning," George Bush doesn't mean that U.S. efforts have led to fewer terror attacks.

Terror attacks and kidnappings worldwide exceeded 10,000 for the first time last year, propelled in part by a surge in Iraq, according to government figures to be released soon.

Officials cautioned against reading too much into the overall total. The government last year adopted a new definition of terrorism and changed its system of counting global attacks, devoting more energy to finding reports of violence against civilians.

Yet the numbers are a striking reminder that violence around the globe has dramatically increased in the more than four years of the war on terror.

Terrorist violence in Iraq is up in every category in 2005, including armed attacks and kidnappings. The official said Iraq will represent more than 50% of the total increase in terrorist incidents. The year before, the center said there were 866 terror attacks against civilians and other non-combatants there.

I know the new definition of terrorism is going to encompass more incidents and all that, but wow, 10,000 is a lot -- roughly 30 terrorist attacks every day of the year. And is there any account that shows this War on Terrorism has led to a reduction in, you know, terrorism? Otherwise, I don't know how Bush figures he's winning his war.

All those allegedly dangerous people locked up at Gitmo, Abu Grahib and God knows where else, and yet terrorism continues to grow. That means either we have thousands of the wrong people detained without charges around the world, or we have all the right people and something is creating new terrorists. And being that Iraq alone represents more than half of the total increase in terrorist incidents, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the effect of the War on Terror is the exact opposite of it's claimed objective.

Either way, it's not a pretty picture.