July 13, 2005 - On July 7th four suicide bombers from the English city of Leeds struck in London at rush hour and brought the city’s transportation system to a halt. The bombers did not sneak into Britain using false passports and stolen identities. They did not import the explosives that they used. No amount of airport security could have intercepted this attack. No amount of surveillance could have detected the plot before the coordinated explosions erupted. The four men who carried out the plan were born in England, raised and educated in England, and struck with weapons that were constructed in a house in Leeds. They struck in London where CCTV cameras capture and document every movement. Indeed they were captured on video tape making their way to their appointment with their destiny.

No battalions battling terrorists in Basra deterred the four Englishmen from striking at the calm complacency of the English. Fighting them “over there” in Iraq did not prevent them from striking “over here” in London. President Bush wants us to believe that we are winning the war against terrorists. He wants us to believe that we are safer here because more than 1750 Americans have been sacrificed over there. He wants us to believe that by engaging in wars of conquest in Afghanistan and Iraq we are keeping terrorists from our shores.

If we believe our own law enforcement agencies, America has its own pockets of Jihadists. Our newly reorganized Department of Homeland Security concentrates on preventing yesterday’s attacks. It would be really difficult for Mohammed Atta and and his 18 soldiers to repeat the September 11th atrocity. It wasn’t difficult at all for the Leeds Jihadists to replicate the March 11th attack in Madrid. We saw the result last week.

What is the lesson in this for America? It is simply this – no matter how many brigades we deploy to Kabul and Baghdad we are no more secure against terrorism in Boston or Baltimore than were the citizens of London on July 7th. This new Bush justification for the Iraqi war is as fraudulent as those empty justifications that preceded it. The fact is that we are losing not winning Mr. Bush’s War on Terrorism.

Will it take a July 7th attack in an American city to make us see it? Will three or four fanatics strike at American civilians in a mall or amusement park? Stand by. It is only a matter of time.