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(guest blog by Taylor Marsh)

Well, so much for making us safer and forget about "mission accomplished." Oh, I guess what President Bush meant to say is that he didn't care about the rest of the world, including the Iraqis, as long as the bombs were blazing "over there." How Christian of you, brother Bush. Next week will begin the last 1000 days of George W. Bush's presidency. I'm starting to feel safer already.

Last year the Bush administration calculated the number of terrorism incidences in a manner that was not significantly broad, so in the middle of it they changed their calculus. However, it only revealed the absurdity of Bush and Rummy's rationalization for fighting the "war on terror," which basically amounted to the who cares who dies as long as it's not on American soil strategy. According to Knight Ridder, over half of the fatalities in the rise in terrorist attacks came from Iraq. The death toll does not include combat deaths of U.S. soldiers, Iraqis and anyone else involved in the Iraq war.

The Republican party foreign policy is completely bankrupt. It lies in a heap in the Iraqi desert.

The number of terrorist attacks documented by U.S. intelligence agencies jumped sharply in 2005, crossing the 10,000 mark for the first time, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Officials caution that much of the increase, due to be reported publicly next week, stems from a change last year in how terror attacks are counted, coupled with a more aggressive effort to tally such violence worldwide.

But the documents say, and officials confirm, that some of the rise is traceable to the war in Iraq, where foreign terrorists, a homegrown insurgency and sectarian strife have all contributed to political bloodshed.

Report documents major increase in terrorist incidents

The other problem with the Bush foreign policy failures is that while we're fighting the war in Iraq, other terrorist groups have been able to cement regional fiefdoms. In addition, terrorist groups are not only more independent, but have branched off into "micro-groups." These terrorists are also involved in cyberspace now, something that Richard Clarke warned our government about over a decade ago, when he was President Clinton's terrorism czar, a cabinet level position at the time.

However, the minute George W. Bush came into office, he and his Cold War warriors demoted Mr. Clarke and made his former terrorism czar position a basic staff level post, ignored his warnings, then didn't bother to meet with him until the day before 9/11. For his apology to the 9/11 families, Mr. Clarke was swiftboated by the Republicans, while Ken doll Sean Hannity continues to repeat the ridiculous Republican talking point that Bill Clinton was offered Osama.

The United States and its allies have mounted an intense military and diplomatic assault on terrorist havens, which include Somalia, the trans-Sahara in North Africa, and the Sulu Sea in Southeast Asia.

While that effort has had some success, officials say they're alarmed about a new haven: cyberspace, which terrorists are using for recruitment, propaganda and even training.

The annual tally of terrorist attacks has drawn intense scrutiny in recent years, in part because of a series of embarrassing and controversial incidents.

In April 2004, the State Department issued a report for calendar year 2003 that incorrectly stated that significant terrorist attacks had declined from the year before. In fact, the number of attacks had risen, but the report failed to include major attacks at the end of 2003. (source)

Larry Johnson disagrees with how the Bush administration is defining terrorism. However, I would say that's the least of our problems, as long as George W. Bush is in office and the Republican party's bankrupt foreign policy and national security strategeries are the order of the day.