I have seen several letters to the editor today basically stating that the fact that the government raised the alert level to Orange means that we're not safer and that Howard Dean was correct in saying that the country is not safer with Saddam Hussein having been captured. (Which is just another way of saying "Bush lied"). Here are some excerpts:

From the Dallas Morning News:

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is being loudly attacked for suggesting that the capture of Saddam Hussein hasn't made us any safer.

Then I pick up my morning newspaper yesterday and read that the homeland security threat assessment has been raised to orange (the second-highest level) and that Tom Ridge says we're now in greater danger from terrorist attack than at any time since 9-11.

So, let me see if I have this straight. Howard Dean is wrong because capturing someone who didn't have anything to do with 9-11 and who didn't even have any weapons of mass destruction makes us safer, even though we are now in greater danger from the people who did attack us?

Sorry, but I think Dr. Dean has got it right. We aren't going to be safer until we finish the job with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The invasion of Iraq was an unrelated, bloody and expensive diversion from our real goal.

Lori Senesac, Dallas

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From the New York Times:

Re "Terror Alert Is Raised to `High,' Increasing Scrutiny of Travelers" (front page, Dec. 22):

If, as President Bush claims, the world is safer now that Saddam Hussein is in custody, then why has he raised the nation's terror alert from elevated to high? It is disappointing to me that such questions of Mr. Bush go unasked, and unacceptable that they go unanswered.

Over the past week, Mr. Bush's pundits have slammed Howard Dean for stating that the world is no safer after Saddam Hussein's capture than it was before. Yet, based on this weekend's developments, isn't it clear that Mr. Bush agrees?

Shame on us, as Americans, for allowing an administration to continually say one thing and do another!

SUZANNE RUSSIAN
Metuchen, N.J., Dec. 22, 2003
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First of all, no one was claiming that the U.S. would be safer from specific threats by all global terrorist organizations immediately after the capture of Saddam Hussein. This may be a bad analogy, but 60 years after Hitler committed suicide, there are thousands of neo-Nazis and many acts of violence and murder have been committed in Hitler's name or honor. His country's surrender did not also mean the beginning of a peaceful world without war. That does not mean that the world is not better off without Hitler.

And you know what, maybe we are a little less safe in the short term. But does that invalidate the long-term struggle to replace tyranny and terrorism with freedom and debate in the Middle East? Americans as individuals sure weren't safer the days after we declared war on Japan and Germany, and over 400,000 died in the following 3 1/2 years in helping to defeat the forces of evil.

Secondly, it is funny how the Bush critics are using his own creation, the terror alert system, against him. If the Bush administration did not create the alert system as a safety measure how would the Bush-haters know when it is less "safe" in order to criticize the president? That's like criticizing the states that have developed the Amber Alert system for not doing more to prevent child abduction, the proof being that they have to use the Amber Alert system.

Finally, here's another analogy - there are probably more automobile accidents than ever before (over 6 million in 2001) - but tens of thousands of lives have been saved because we are prepared for them with seat belts, airbags, crumple zones, etc. We're safer not because the driving environment has changed so much - it's that our little metal capsules that we travel in are designed better against catastrophe. Well due to the Bush administrations efforts, we have been trying to design this capsule that we call America a little better - while at the same time trying to eliminate the outside forces that would try to do us harm. Will we ever know that we are safer or are allocating our resources appropriately - I'm not sure. But at least we're doing something, and not waiting for the United Nations or the EU to come protect us.