I grant you that the Bush administration allowed a window of opportunity to close without making serious inroads into changing this nations understanding of what we are facing. In fairness, though, keep in mind the degree of opposition the administration faced not only from other countries, but from within the U.S.'s own goverment. While terrorists were brutally murdering many, the media in this country was focused on pictures of supposed torture at Abu Graib prison. Nick Berg's head was brutally hacked off by al Zarqawi while American soldiers faced penalty for doing their job. We as a nation tend to forget the context of all that happens, and demand that things occur as we desire them to be. Unless we know all that the President is faced with on a day-to-day basis regarding all the outside pressure, we cannot know why more wasn't done. Also, we cannot (and should not) know all that our government is and has been doing behind the scenes. Only history will be able to report the minutae of the decision making process during a time of war. I'd hold off saying definitively that Bush has failed until the final battle has been waged. We don't know what is coming next, just as most of the nation did not know that Truman ordered the dropping of not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan. There is much yet to happen that could turn the tide of this war back in our favor.
We have an additional problem. Namely, we are increasingly becoming a collection of 'cultures within a geographical area' not a 'country'. As a case in point, I recently met a woman in a business setting who spoke with a very, very thick accent. I asked her where she was from and how long she has been 'here'. The answer; Vietnam, and TWENTY-FIVE YEARS! She informed me that she plans to retire to Orange County, CA because 'There are a lot of Vietnamese there'. Does she consider herself and 'American'? NO. She is here 'temporarily' from Vietman. THAT is our problem and it is only going to get worse and worse. We have no 'country' to defend!