US lacks ways to gauge wins against terror - report

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28264126.htm

US lacks ways to gauge wins against terror - report

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The Bush administration's yardsticks for progress in its fight against terrorism are inadequate and do not show whether the United States is winning or losing, a study by a congressional think tank says.

"Although four years have gone by since Sept. 11, government agencies have still not agreed on criteria to measure progress against terrorism, even though billions of dollars have been spent," said Raphael Perl, author of the internal report by the Congressional Research Service.

"The risk is that without these criteria, we just take action and we measure progress retrospectively against what we've done. And of course since we've done some stuff, we've made progress," he told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

...

But the study said the rising costs of anti-terrorism efforts had become an increasing problem, with billions of dollars being spent on steps such as developing new technologies and beefing up security staffing without methods to check if they are cost-effective.

[Brooklyn Michael]

1. "since we've done some stuff, we've made progress"

Good lord, if that doesn't sum up Bush's "strategery" for Iraq, the war on terror, his domestic agenda....just about anything.

The thing is - the "war on terror" was never MEANT to be won. Just like the "war" on drugs was never meant to be won. It's designed to "do a bunch of stuff" that will make the general populace think the problem is getting solved, when it's all just a giant game of 3 card monte, using billions of tax-payer dollars, the lives of our soldiers, and this country's seemingly unending supply of gullibility.

I hate to break it to the report's author, Mr. Perl, but the administration will have exactly

ZERO

interest in implementing your findings.