Shame on me.

In a post last night, I lashed out at the Administration's simplistic view of success in the war on terrorism. (a phrase I dislike because the tactic "terror" will always exist) I was responding to speech by Richard Clarke and a new ad from the Bush campaign.

In the speech as in his book, Clarke invoked the movie The Battle of Algiers. In the final scene, the French authorities cross out the final picture on the organizational chart of resistance fighters. As the movie fades out the viewer is informed that the French were forced to abandon Algiers within two years. The point is the French battled the organization not the ideology and in the process created more enemies than they vanquished. Clarke links this to the chart (cards, in the book) that Bush requested after 9/11. Clarke imagines a self-congratulatory Bush placing large X's over pictures.

The ad reflected the image. In it, Bush speaks of bringing enemies to justice. I could not understand how he was going to score political points by calling attention to the fact that UBL remains at large. The AP article on the ad referred to Bush's claim that two-thirds of senior Al-Qaeda leaders have been killed or captured. The claim launched me into the aforementioned tirade on how to measure progress. I, however, did not question the underlying assertion. Shame on me. A chart in the recent Economist called my attention to my negligence:

"In October 2001, the United States produced a list of the 22 'most wanted terrorists'... So far only three of the 22 have been captured or killed."