Oh, and I hope you didn't miss the NYT report that the Iraq war has actually worsened the terrorist threat, creating more jihadists and endangering America.

And no, it's not just the Times saying that, for those who are wont to dismiss it as the rantings of the moonbat left.

As Josh Marshall phrased it, "an NIE isn't some random government white paper.  It represents the consensus judgment of the entire US intelligence community, with input from all the different agencies, from CIA and DIA to INR and FBI and all the others.  In other words, this is the collaborative judgment of the people actually fighting the War on Terror."  As in, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte had to approve the NIE.

The White House says that the Times report "is not representative of the complete document."  But, the White House is also refusing to release the document -- even in redacted form to obscure classified intel information -- so that the public can judge for itself.  Especially when a crucial election is coming up.  And isn't this Administration the one that loudly proclaimed the importance of accountability?  Or at least used to, until it started doing things that it might be held accountable for?

From that Reuters link:

Negroponte said the analysis found that if the U.S. effort to create a stable government in Iraq succeeded, jihadists would be weakened and "fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere."

This is a zero-sum game all of a sudden?  Jihadists can't be created by U.S. policy, as the report itself supposedly says?

One more reaction from Talking Points Memo:

The implication of course is that regardless of whether we succeed in Iraq, jihadists will leave determined to carry on the fight. It's just that if we fail, more will leave determined to fight.

Excellent. Our strategic objective now is to demoralize some of the jihadists. 

Actually, I think the sum total of the Bush foreign policy (and I had to pause for a fit of laughter as I typed those last three words) is to hang on until January 20, 2009, when all talk of wars and Iraq and terror and security and Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and torture will be swept away, safely obscured behind the SEP field.