Judging by lapses on domestic security, President Bush is confused by the fog of war. But for those watching him, the picture has never been more clear: Bush is a one-trick pony.

The outrageous decision by Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff to cut funds to New York and Washington by 40 percent is the latest evidence that Bush has a one-dimensional approach to the war on terror. It's an approach that is dangerous to Americans' health.

That's an odd charge to make against a self-described War President who has put the nation on offense ever since 9/11. He has said repeatedly — and I agree with him — that it is better we fight the terrorists abroad than at home, and that we must kill them before they kill us. That's why we're in Afghanistan and Iraq and rattling sabers at Iran and North Korea.

But any football coach knows you don't win by offense only. Just as you need to get in the other team's end zone, you need to keep them out of yours.

In terror terms, that means you must protect the home front. And that's where Bush doesn't have a clue. In recent months, there have been three startling demonstrations that the president doesn't get the need to play solid defense.

In February, it was the oh-so-casual decision to let a United Arab Emirates shipping company operate American ports. Bush was adamant the plan was a good one, even though it turned out he didn't know anything about it until the story broke. Only a public and congressional outcry convinced the company, an arm of a suspect foreign government, to back off.

The incident, combined with the daily images of the bloody slog in Iraq, helped sink the president's approval ratings to all-time lows. Support for the war on terror, the one area that allowed Bush to defy political gravity, fell as much as 9 points and has drifted lower since.

Then the immigration mess came into focus amid evidence Bush had done nothing to secure our border with Mexico. Yet he is promoting legislation that, despite his claims to the contrary, would leave the borders porous while creating a path to citizenship for millions who came here illegally on his watch.

"He sees it in terms of good and evil and says things like, 'Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande,' " said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. "He's gotten himself into this and he convinces himself he's right, then he presents false choices."

King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told me he is perplexed about why Bush doesn't see the security implications of illegal immigration. When King says, "We have to get control of our borders," it takes your breath away to realize Bush doesn't understand.

And now we face the funding debacle, where the Bushies claim New York's application wasn't filed properly — heaven forfend! — and say they don't like how the city has spent some of the money it has already gotten. But those are hardly reasons for endangering the 8 million people who have already taken two terror attacks for the country.

Indeed, the decision was revealed for the bunkum it is by the fact that federal officials couldn't find any national icons in New York worth protecting. Are they blind and dumb, or lying?

Either way, it's a perfect metaphor for the status of the war on terror: We're hip-deep in trouble in Iraq, where our soldiers are accused of atrocities and Iraqis kill each other by the scores. Meanwhile, our back-door border is unlocked and the White House proposes to disarm the largest city against the terror menace.

Heckuva job, Georgie.