During an interview with former member of Congress and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) on the July 24 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto allowed DeLay to claim that “we went and got” the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, recent reports indicate that the security situation in Iraq and Afghanistan has deteriorated significantly, with insurgent attacks and terrorist activity continuing.

On July 10, Agence France Press reported that Afghanistan has recently seen a significant resurgence of “Taliban-inspired forces,” that have “mounted larger, better coordinated attacks on US and NATO forces this year than at any time since their ouster in a US-led campaign in late 2001.” Further, according to a July 23 Reuters report on recent insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, the past week has been “the bloodiest phase of an insurgency since coalition forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.” Reuters added that "[s]uicide attacks are becoming more common in Afghanistan, as militants apparently copy tactics used by insurgents in Iraq."

Similarly, an April 28 New York Times article noted that a recent State Department report had found that terror attacks in Iraq have doubled over the last year:

The figures for 2005, reported in the State Department's annual survey of global terrorism, showed a doubling from the previous year in both the number of major terrorist attacks in Iraq and the death toll from them. The overall tally of about 3,500 terrorist attacks in Iraq last year represented nearly one-third of such attacks around the world. The numbers do not include attacks against American or coalition troops.

Further, the "Iraq Index" from the Brookings Institution illustrates that the strength of the Iraqi insurgency had risen to over “20,000+” fighters by June 2006, up from less than 5,000 in January 2004. On July 18, CNN reported that the most recent United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq report found that over 14,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since the beginning of the year and that “more than 5,800 deaths and more than 5,700 injuries [were] reported in May and June alone.” The Times also noted on July 19 that, according to the report, an average of more than 100 Iraqi civilians died per day in June as a result of the violence.

From the July 24 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: All right, well, U.S. Senator John Kerry says that if he were president, none of this would have happened. Were his comments out of line during an international crisis or was he fully justified in making them? We'll ask former House majority leader Tom DeLay after this.

[...]

CAVUTO: Well, Democratic Senator John Kerry taking a jab at President Bush over the weekend for the handling of the Mideast crisis -- while in Michigan to help the state gubernatorial campaign, he told The Detroit News, quote, “If I was president, this wouldn't have happened.” Are Democrats like Kerry out of line, using the Mideast crisis to score some political points? With us now is former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Congressman, good to have you here, in the flesh.

DeLAY: Thank you, Neil.

CAVUTO: What do you think of that?

DeLAY: Well, it's typical John Kerry. And God forbid that he ever become president, because we'd -- he'd be in a bigger mess than we are in today. He is the soul and -- and the -- the soul of the Democratic Party, the banner-carrier, and he reflects what Democrats' first instinct is cut and run.

CAVUTO: So, this idea that -- and this is widely held among Democrats, as you know, Congressman, that -- and -- and some Republicans, I guess -- that the Bush administration, distracted with Iraq and other developments, ignored the Middle East, what do you think?

DeLAY: Absolutely did not. In fact, I think that in my opinion, they were -- they were over-reaching a little bit in calling for a two-state solution, creating a -- a state for the Hamas terrorists. What we have now is a situation that no one prayed for, but it is a situation that we can face reality and take care of this once and for all. You can have the cease-fires with legitimate governments. But these are terrorists. And now --

CAVUTO: But you got to talk to them, don't you?

DeLAY: No, you don't need to talk to them.

CAVUTO: Really? So, what do you do? You just destroy them?

DeLAY: You go get them.

CAVUTO: Really?

DeLAY: And just as we went and got them in Afghanistan, we went and got them in Iraq -- we are at war on terror.