Bush administration officials have long argued that taking the war to the terrorists' doorstep was the best way of drawing fire away from the homeland, while "draining the swamp" of global terrorism's most notorious players.

Conventional media wisdom held, however, that the war had actually boosted al-Qaida recruitment - generating an even greater threat to the U.S. than would have otherwise been the case.

Intelligence officials cited by the Post, however, now say just the opposite has happened.

"Reports of credible terrorist threats against the United States are at their lowest level since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001," according to U.S. intelligence officials and federal and state law enforcement authorities cited by the paper.

Even in the Middle East, the Bush administration's offensive strategy seems to have produced results from a national security standpoint.

With their ability to communicate and move about freely limited by tight U.S. and Pakistani surveillance, Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, have both recently urged Abu Musab al Zarqawi, chief of al-Qaida operations in Iraq, to organize attacks on the U.S. homeland.

But Zarqawi himself remains pinned down by U.S. forces in and around Baghdad, with almost weekly reports of skirmishes where he's barely eluded capture.

Unnoted by the Post, the war has also eliminated a key safe haven for global terrorism - Iraq had for decades played host to some of the most notorious perpetrators of attacks against American civilians.