What The ...... ????

While everyone seems to be focusing on Chertoff's "gut" comment about an al Qaeda attack, I thought his concern about training bases in Afghanistan was the real story. Well, now we know where his "gut" problem comes from and someone is finally getting to my concerns:

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to a level not seen since just before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

The conclusion suggests that the group that launched the most devastating terror attack on the United States has been able to rebuild despite nearly six years of bombings, war and other tactics aimed at crippling it.

...

The new threat assessment puts particular focus on Pakistan, as did Kringen.

"Sooner or later you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven" along the Afghan-Pakistani border, he told the House committee. "At the end of the day, when we have had success, it is when you've been able to get them worried about who was informing on them, get them worried about who was coming after them."

As I mentioned yesterday, didn't we fight a war to prevent this? Isn't this proof of an abject failure in the great war on terra! Wasn't Bush always able to claim "cleaning up Afghanistan" as a semi-victory? It appears to me like we're now looking at total failure, aren't we?