'setbacks'

CIA chief Michael Hayden, like everyone else in the Bush Administration, gets it when it comes to terrorism, which is why America has been safe since 2001.

"The fact that we have kept [Americans] safe for pushing seven years now has got them back into the state of mind where 'safe' is normal," he said. Our view is: Safe is hard-won, every 24 hours."

"Since the start of the year, he said, al-Qaeda's global leadership has lost three senior officers, including two who succumbed "to violence," an apparent reference to Predator strikes that killed terrorist leaders Abu Laith al-Libi and Abu Sulayman al-Jazairi in Pakistan. He also cited a successful blow against "training activity" in the region but offered no details. "Those are the kinds of things that delay and disrupt al-Qaeda's planning," Hayden said."

As a result of this type of determination, the American military has inflicted, in Hayden's words, "near strategic defeat for al Qaeda in Iraq, near strategic defeat for al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and significant setbacks for al-Qaeda globally."

Interesting and subdued sub-headline on this WaPo article: "Group Is Facing Setbacks Globally."