After 9/11, Mr. Bush told us he would hunt down Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. I seem to recall some cowboy rhetoric about “dead or alive.” We’ve all known on this side of the blogzome that Bush has increased the ranks of Al Qaeda instead by turning his eye and our considerable military force towards Iraq. Now Bush’s own people are admitting failure. From the NY Times:

President Bush’s top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged today that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan had failed, as the White House released a grim new intelligence assessment that has forced the administration to consider more aggressive measures inside Pakistan.

Of course, the Bush Administration is being consistent. They are taking zero responsibility for the failure. I’m just surprised they are blaming Pakistan’s Musharef. Surely they could blame Democrats and Cindy Sheehan, or something like that, if they wanted to be even more consistent.

In identifying the main reasons for Al Qaeda’s resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who last year brokered a cease-fire with tribal leaders in an attempt to drain support for Islamic extremism in the region.

“It hasn’t worked for Pakistan,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, who heads the Homeland Security Council at the White House. “It hasn’t worked for the United States.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are saying the right things, albeit far, far too late. They should have done everything in their power to stop the ADHD strategy of attacking Al Qaeda in Iraq, a place where they weren’t. But at least they are pointing out Bush’s failure now. From Agence France Presse:

Nearly six years on from the 9/11 attacks, which killed roughly 3,000 people, Bush critics demanded to know why their prime architects are still on the run and redoubled calls for an early withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

“After almost six years, awesome sacrifices by our brave men and women in uniform, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, we are no safer than we were on 9/11,” Democratic Senator and White House contender Barack Obama said.

“This is a consequence of waging a misguided war in Iraq that should never have been authorized, and failing to seize the opportunity to do lasting harm to the extremist networks that pose a direct threat to our homeland,” he said.

“It is time to act to correct those mistakes, and the first step is to get out of Iraq, because you can’t win a war when you’re on the wrong battlefield.”

. . .

Former senator John Edwards, another Democrat in the 2008 presidential race, said the NIE was “proof positive” that Bush’s war on terror was nothing more than a “bumper sticker” and Iraq a dangerous diversion.

“This administration has failed America — six years after 9/11, bin Laden is still alive, Al-Qaeda is more powerful now than ever before, and we have fewer allies,” he said.

9/11 was the most important event of the last generation. Mr. Bush had one vital task, to seek out Al Qaeda wherever they were and to root out that threat. We all know Mr. Bush gave incentive to fanatics all around the world to join Al Qaeda. Instead of carrying the weight of world opinion behind him and avenging the devastating attacks of 9/11, Mr. Bush has failed utterly.

Alas, there is nothing new here. This is merely confirmation, yet again, of the biggest failure of a Presidency in our entire history. Get hold of your Senator now.