Grading the War on Terrorism

There has also been progress on the home front. The legal and policy impediments to information sharing between U.S. foreign intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement agencies have been eliminated thanks to the U.S.A. Patriot Act and other laws, court rulings, and policy directives. The National Counterterrorist Center (first known as the Terrorist Threat Integration Center when the president established it in 2003) successfully integrates intelligence from and coordinates operations across multiple agencies. The new Terrorist Screening Center has created a single terrorist watch list for the whole country. The Department of Health and Human Services has stockpiled enough smallpox vaccine for every American and has significantly improved disease surveillance at home and abroad. The new Transportation Security Administration has compelled major improvements in the security of U.S. commercial aviation, reducing airliners' vulnerability to hijacking. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State have enacted a series of border-security reforms that have made it significantly more difficult for foreign terrorists to enter the country through official points of entry. There is very little evidence that Muslims living in the United States are succumbing to radical militancy. And there have been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Any fair-minded assessment of the administration's record would have to compare these lists of shortcomings and achievements, but Benjamin and Simon do not. They start by discussing the evolution of the jihadist threat since 9/11. They focus initially on the apparent new breed of Islamist terrorists, "self-starters" such as the ones who carried out the bombings in Madrid, Casablanca, and London, or the killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. They paint a picture of terrorist cells proliferating spontaneously, without any central direction but with common motivations, similar ideologies, and universal access to terrorist how-to guides on the Internet. Theirs is a thoroughly mainstream set of conclusions, purveyed by most outside experts as well as U.S. intelligence analysts and government officials, including President Bush. Benjamin and Simon's treatment of such issues is fine, but readers looking for a more subtle and original analysis would do well to consult Marc Sageman's Understanding Terror Networks.

The Next Attack also contains a rambling discussion of "jihad in the age of globalization." "The most dramatic transformation wrought by Islamization," the authors argue, "has been to strip away national and ethnic distinctions, so a Jordanian of Bedouin descent from the country's eastern desert, an Algerian immigrant in a Parisian banlieue, and an Indonesian from Sulawesi now increasingly view themselves as part of a singular community with common interests. Everything else is secondary." The evidence presented to support this and many other sweeping assertions about the Muslim world is flimsy. In the case of the passage above, for example, the authors refer to a single poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2003, and then they footnote a Pew report entitled "U.S. Image Up Slightly, but Still Negative" that turns out to be on a different subject. The authors presumably meant to cite the center's "Views of a Changing World." But this report offers evidence that pan-Islamic religious identification has risen with time, not that religious identification among Muslims has superseded their national or ethnic identities. The Next Attack is riddled with such dubious claims about what is going on in the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world, and with such sloppy documentation.

Recent reports from the Pew Research Center present a considerably more nuanced picture than the one portrayed in The Next Attack. A study from June 2005 states, "Many Muslims see the U.S. supporting democracy in their countries and many of those who are optimists about the prospects for democracy in the Middle East give at least some credit to U.S. policies. But progress for America's image in these countries is measured in small steps; solid majorities in five predominantly Muslim countries surveyed still express unfavorable views of the United States." A study from July 2005 notes, "Most Muslim publics are expressing less support for terrorism than in the past. Confidence in Osama bin Laden has declined markedly in some countries and fewer believe suicide bombings that target civilians are justified in the defense of Islam."

Benjamin and Simon, by contrast, write, "America's image in the Muslim world has never been more battered, and the jihadist claim that the United States seeks to oppress Muslims has never seemed more plausible -- no matter how noble we view our own sacrifices in the liberation of Iraq. There is, as has so often been said, a war of ideas going on, a battle for hearts and minds. Unfortunately, America has wound up on the wrong side."

The Pew Research Center's foremost interest is to elucidate; Benjamin and Simon's is to lambaste.

FAR ENEMIES ... AND NEAR ONES

Benjamin and Simon devote two long chapters to an analysis of the Bush administration's decision to remove Saddam from power and the administration's failure to anticipate, prepare for, or manage the aftermath. In so doing, they follow a well-beaten path, adding little to the critiques of authors such as Clarke, James Bamford, Larry Diamond, James Fallows, Seymour Hersh, George Packer, and Bob Woodward.