by Michael Cook

Created on: September 15, 2009   Last Updated: September 16, 2009

On balance, the answer to this question has to be "No".

The United States, thankfully, has not experienced another attack on its soil since that dark day when civilian jet liners were transformed into lethal missiles and America was forever changed.

There can be no denying a big part of the reason we have been so fortunate was the Bush administration's initial response to the attacks, namely its assault on both al Qaeda and the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The early days of that operation not only toppled a repressive regime that aided and abetted al Qaeda, it successfully disrupted al Qaeda's operational capacity, thus making it far more difficult for the organization to carry out further attacks against the US directly.

For that, the Bush administration deserves great credit..

But it is becoming increasingly clear the Bush administration made a major tactical and strategic mistake when it took its eye off the prize in Afghanistan to pursue, for whatever the reason, an invasion of Iraq.

That decision, time has shown, was a key factor in both the Taliban and al Qaeda's being able to regroup and reconfigure themselves to the level they are at today.

In addition, the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq opened up a dangerous power vacuum that allowed for the intense insurgency the Bush war planners did not foresee to erupt . That unforeseen insurgency resulted in upwards of 5000 brave Americans losing their lives, and thousands more being maimed, both physically and emotionally, for life.

The invasion of Iraq also, much more so than the Bush administration's initial actions in Afghanistan, unnecessarily unleashed a wave of anger throughout the Muslim world that has been a windfall for Muslim extremists and their recruitment efforts.

The Iraq invasion, in a way the post 9-11 action in Afghanistan did not, provided them with a propaganda victory that made it much easier for them to convince many rank and file Muslims that the US was, indeed, waging war on Islam.

The Bush decision to invade Iraq has likely done more to undermine our long term domestic security interests than any other decision that administration made.

Here's why.

Beyond the obvious success Muslim extremists have had in using the Bush's preemptive, political war of choice in Iraq as a recruitment tool, the reality is the opening of the Iraqi front resulted in our military being strained to almost the breaking point.

We are now fighting two wars and, despite claims that Iraq is stabilizing,

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