It is difficult to state that the national security apparatus is underperforming when you have clear statistical results: no attacks in the last five years. This means that something must be functioning at full parameters there and that the informational community is also operating with those in other countries to obtain these results (the attacks planned for London and stopped are a good example in this sense). On the other hand, a counter argument to this statement is that the war is not against national terrorism: it is a global war on global terrorism, the U.S. have pledged to wipe out terrorism on a global scale and this, as shown in the article, is not yet giving full results. Indeed, the attacks in London and Madrid are a good example in this sense, if we consider only some of the most important cases of extremist Arab terrorism.

As to the Bush administration policies on the international scene, these...

The fact remains that the administration has already recognized some of the flaws and is making significant changes at this point towards a softer diplomacy, a diplomacy of ideas rather than one of guns and a diplomacy of collaboration with its closest allies, starting with its European allies. We have already seen this happening over the last couple of months with collaboration over the North Korean and Iranian issues, for example, as well as the crisis in the Middle East.
Bibliography

1. Foreign Policy and the Center for American Progress. The Terrorism Index. July/August 2006. On the Internet at http://web0.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_2006/TI-index/index.html

Foreign Policy and the Center for American Progress. The Terrorism Index. July/August 2006. On the Internet at http://web0.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_2006/TI-index/index.html