We're Fucked

325,000?

The list of potential terror suspects and people that aid them kept by the federal government's National Counterterrorism Center now contains approximately 325,000 names. The number of people on the list has quadrupled since the fall of 2003 according to counterterrorism officials.

According to the NCTC, the actual number of people on the list is probably closer to 200,000 since many terrorists use numerous false identities and aliases.

According to a report in the 'Washington Post,' a Bush administration official claimed that 'only a very, very small fraction' of the people on the list are American citizens. 'The vast majority are non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S.,' he said. It was not announced what country or countries the majority of people on the list came from.

That number just seems incredibly off to me. If there were 325,000 people conducting active terror plots we'd have more than there are now. Mind you, terror attacks have increased globally. But this is a huge number. I guess it all depends on the meaning of "people that aid them." If you take that to mean "those that provide aid and comfort to the enemy" it would, by Karl Rove's logic, include every Democrat in the House and Senate and everyone that voted for John Kerry.

So maybe I should be surprised it's that low.

But taking it at face value, what has happened since the fall of 2003 to quadruple the number of terrorists worldwide? Did Clinton return to office? Was it the cartoons?

It wouldn't be that the fall of 2003 was right around the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency, would it?

Nawww...