Good old Howard Dean, God bless him, was the only pol at the time who proclaimed, loud and clear, that the Iraq war had not made us safer. On the contrary, it presented middle eastern terrorists with a slew of targets close by. And of course, it gave those moderate Arabs less reason to question the methods of Al Quaeda and other jihadist groups.

I would argue that the Bush administration approach, in general, has made us less secure, and will make us even more vulnerable in the foreseeable future. After 9/11, the attack on Afghanistan made some sense, though in the main it was heavy handed. The idea should have been to root out the culprits, rather than carpet bomb that miserable place into oblivion.

The results were mixed. While some Al Quaeda and Taliban honchos were killed or captured, Bin Laden still roams free; Al Quaeda and the Taliban have regrouped; and the Iraq occupation has been a recruiting bonanza for radical Islamists everywhere. Throw in the mix the prisoner abuse scandal, and you have the Ugly American reprised.

Joe B.