What Is Safe Enough?

By Ellen Goodman
Saturday, January 3, 2004; Page A21

BOSTON -- Could we rewind the videotape to Dec. 15, when Howard Dean qualified his pleasure at the capture of Saddam Hussein by saying that it "has not made America safer"? Dean was instantly lambasted by his opponents, especially Joe Lieberman, who said the doctor was climbing "into his own spider hole of denial."

Well, six days later, after the sort of terrorist "chatter" designed to make your teeth chatter, the country was put on orange alert for a "spectacular" attack rivaling those of Sept. 11. Then six Air France flights destined to fly into the homeland were grounded. And finally, under "emergency rules," our government has required armed guards on foreign flights.

Are we safer yet?

Meanwhile, in Libya, Moammar Gaddafi turned around and allowed nuclear inspectors. But in Pakistan there was another assassination attempt on Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose country has its own nuclear weapons, materials and scientists.

So, are we safer yet?

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KEY QUOTE:

"Last year President Bush said that 'we refuse to live in fear' and justified a preemptive war against Iraq as a strike against fear. This year the Bush campaign will simultaneously tell us how dangerous the world is and how much safer the administration has made it."