Real questions about America's ability to prosecute a successful war on international terrorism have been raised by data released yesterday by the State Department. As Susan B. Glasser reports in The Washington Post, terrorist activity grew at a nearly exponential rate last year, undermining any pledge by the administration to curtail worldwide terror.

The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week.

Overall, the number of what the U.S. government considers "significant" attacks grew to about 655 last year, up from the record of around 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides who were briefed on statistics covering incidents including the bloody school seizure in Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir.

Terrorist incidents in Iraq also dramatically increased, from 22 attacks to 198, or nine times the previous year's total -- a sensitive subset of the tally, given the Bush administration's assertion that the situation there had stabilized significantly after the U.S. handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government last summer.

Glasser reports that more than 1,000 people died in terrorist attacks last year -- not including those in Iraq. For America to become truly safe, the federal government will have to begin to spend significant money outside of Iraq on combating terrorism. If the folks in Washington don't do this, then the American people should seriously consider a change of leadership.