Concerns about the Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 report The State Department has recently revised it's 2003 Global Terrorism Report. From the Washington Post:

New figures released yesterday by the Bush administration show dramatically higher terrorism casualties last year than the State Department documented in an April report that U.S. officials heralded as evidence of great progress in the battle against terrorism.

According to the 2003 Global Terrorism Report:

We have made significant progress in the two and one-half years since
the global war on terrorism began.

The pressing question is how is "significant progress" defined. If progress is defined by reducing the number of "Total International Terrorists Attacks" then some progress is being made. Even when the State Department numbers are adjusted, International Terrorists Attacks have generally been on the decline since 1991, with a sharp decline from 2001 to 2002. Even with the decline in attacks the number of fatalities is the highest since 1998. From the Post Article:

The revised figures show that more people were killed by terrorists last year than at any time since 1998, apart from 2001, when the Sept. 11 hijackings caused 2,973 deaths. Terrorist bombings and shootings left 3,646 people injured around the world -- more than in any year in the past six.

Once the number of attacks is viewed by region (here,pg.2)the war on terrorism starts to become less of a picture of success. As seen from the graph, the decline of terrorists attacks is found mostly in Africa and Latin America. What is most disturbing is that the number of terrorists attacks have risen in the Middle East. This is disturbing because clearly the Middle East has been the focus of the Administration when conducting the war on terror. Clearly it is difficult to define the war on terrorism as successful when the number of fatalities has risen as has the number of terrorists attacks in the main theater of operations, the Middle East.   ¶ 6:02 PM