Who has lead us to this?

As you can imagine, the right is shrieking in terror that, uh, terror is going to reign supreme in light of the new Democratic majorities. In that sense (for them, anyway), it's a self fulfilling process.

Richard Miniter in the New York Post writes an article this morning entitled "Why Al Qaeda's happy:"

AMERICA'S enemies are gloating over this week's election results - and the Bush administration's air of imminent retreat. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the tremendously gifted Zalmay Khalilzad, is said to be on the way out.

"The American people have taken a step in the right path to come out of their predicament, they voted for a level of reason," said Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al Qaeda in Iraq. In a recording posted on jihadi Web sites, he called Bush a "lame duck" and accused Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of "rushing to escape."

The group boasts of having 12,000 fighters in Iraq who have "vowed to die for God's sake." That is not a bluff, according to several high-ranking members of the intelligence community: Al Qaeda in Iraq is more dangerous than ever.

I may be too clever by half here, but under which administration's policies and which party's dominance has Al Qaeda in Iraq become "more dangerous than ever?" I'm pretty sure it wasn't the guys who colored the map blue this past election night.

CBS News reports that Al Qaeda has been gearing up for a new wave of bombings, this time in Europe, and mostly likely occurring as the holiday season is in full swing. Analysts suggest this is one reason Al Qaeda aligned forces have been leaving the country behind.

But that does not mean that Afghanistan, the forgotten stepson in the war on terror, has been made safer under current policy either. In fact, the reason that Al Qaeda is free to go is that Taliban led forces are making a comeback:

Intelligence analysts and security sources say one reason why al Qaeda might feel confident in leaving the battlefield in Afghanistan largely in the hands of the Afghan Taliban is that the Taliban have shown new skill and ferocity in fighting U.S. and coalition forces.

Hmmm... so with Republican control of the House, the Senate, and the White House we have seen Al Qaeda in Iraq become "more dangerous that ever" and seen a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Sounds like a winning strategy so far.

The failing policies of the past need to be left there - in the past. The new election period has given America a clean slate to examine it's policies in the Middle East and Afghanistan. There has to be more to choose from than leaving the chaos behind and remaining hip deep in it. We need to find a way to end it.

Rather than attacking each other over these issues, we need to unite and attack our enemies instead. As Abe Lincoln would no doubt say today, a House divided against itself can not stand up to terrorists and defeat them. Neither will presaging defeat before Democrats working with the President attempt to find a path to victory.