This article is the usual leftist POS. They claim we're too occupied with Iraq to take care of Al-Qaeda, yet they quote as us warning of Al-Qaeda being in Indonesia. Then they whine that our intelligence agencies are too diverted to Iraq. If we had expanded our FBI/CIA presence in Indonesia, I'd bet the Guradian would be whining about American "imperialism". Just another "Damned if we do, damned if we don't" situation.
After the Bali bombing, I knew some people on the left (as well as the right) would pounce on it as proof that the war on terror was a "failure". Well, that depends on what our goals are. There hasn't been a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11, so it's a success in that regard. Smaller terrorist attacks, such as the French tanker and now this, are much easier to do. All you need is some explosives, a few cars, and a target. Take a look at McVeigh.
True there haven't been any attacks on the scale of 9/11. But there were never any before either. A pattern of one is not conclusive in either regard.
Terrorism may be a fact of life from now on. If it isn't radical Muslims, it could be psychotic Americans - like the sniper or McVeigh. Technology continues to increase the potential concentration of destructive power and the distribution of destructive technologies/knowledge.
The question we must ask ourselves is how much are we willing to pay for our personal protection and is what we are willing to pay enough? And is this cost worth the nominal risk?
Failure is a function of expectations and promises. The Bali attack is the equivalent of 6 months worth of intifada against Israel in a single attack. The attack on the tanker is the terrorists' efforts to up the ante a bit more by making us wonder if tankers now need to be protected.
Bush's determination to tackle Iraq and the consequential marginalization of the importance of al Qaeda/bin Laden/Afghanistan is an implicit promise that they are no longer issues. Bali proves that they aren't out (although they might be down). It would be foolish to be tempted to take on a soft target, like Hussein's regime, just because we stopped making tangible progress with al Qaeda. We really need to concentrate on them to finish the job.
Al Qaeda will eventually get WMD, Saddam or not. We can't stop the proliferation of WMD technology - but we can stop organizations intent on using them.