perfidy

I've seen several sources hailing a new report by the State Department that indicates a marked decline in terror attacks in 2002.

Good news, right?

Well, would be. Except, as Calpundit observes, the worldwide decline is actually due to a huge decline in the number of Colombian oil pipeline bombings, nothing else. Seriously. There's a graph, you can check it out yourself. In fact, Middle-East-based terror attacks stayed steady, and Asian attacks rose.

So what does this mean? Hell if I know, but I can be sure of two things: this report tells us exactly nothing about how safe we are relative to one year ago; and the President will be making early campaign hay with this out the wazoo.

Side note: our President looked good on the aircraft carrier. As campaign appearances go, it can't be beat. Nevertheless, pretty don't make me agree with his policies. I hope he gets stomped like a narc at a biker rally in '04, unless Kerry is the candidate. Then I hope they both get stomped. A paradox!