Home
Biography
Book
Book Signings
Columns
Interviews
Press
Pictures
GuestBook

Introducing her book
"I am my father's daughter"



Home | Biography | Book | Press | Pictures | GuestBook
The world is not a safer place
Written by Maria Elena Salinas   
Tuesday, September 28 2004
 
For months now, we have been hearing our government tell us that our country is safer and that the world is a safer place. And every time I hear that statement, I can't help but wonder if our government officials are so busy making headlines that they are not reading the headlines themselves. As part of the new trend of the so-called security moms, I must say that I don't feel more secure. It's hard to believe that the world is safer. There are ongoing conflicts all over the globe, and terrorism continues to be a tactic used for political purposes. I don't imagine that the parents of the children who died during the takeover of a school in Russia think the world is safer, or that those who lost loved ones when two Russian planes were blown out of the air do, either. The families who are still grieving the carnage from the train bombings in Madrid, Spain, certainly don't think the world is more secure. Our president says that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein. But while there is no doubt that Saddam was a ruthless dictator, capable of killing his own people and torturing his opponents, it's going to be a little while longer before Iraqis are actually better off without him. For now, Iraq is immersed in a bloody war, making it infinitely more dangerous with ongoing battles and religious uprisings. The presence of foreign terrorists, who took advantage of the political void to enter the country, is a new and dangerous part of the equation, as they kidnap Westerners and behead their victims. Since the U.S.-led invasion of the country began, between 12,000 and 15,000 Iraqi civilians have died, by the most modest estimates, including women and children. That's in addition to the estimated 6,000 Iraqi soldiers who were killed in the beginning of the war and the more than 1,000 U.S. troops who have lost their lives. Even with Saddam Hussein behind bars, the United States cannot be a safer place if Osama bin Laden is still on the loose. It was, after all, bin Laden who declared war on our country, not Saddam. It was he who ordered the attacks on Sept. 11, not Saddam. No connection between the two has been made, yet the Bush administration continues to lump them together in the war against terrorism. How can we feel more secure with fewer friends and more enemies? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said to an audience at Wingate University in North Carolina a few days ago that the biggest threat to our country is the ideology of hatred. It's a good reason for concern, given that more people around the world hate us since the war in Iraq began. And not just Islamic fundamentalists, who might always have despised our way of life, but also those whom our government chastised for not supporting a war whose purpose was never and continues to not be made clear. Vice President Dick Cheney tells us that this administration will protect us from terrorist threats. But who is going to protect us from the threat we now face in our own streets and communities? Congress and the White House stood idly by as the assault-weapons ban expired. Now, anyone can walk into a gun store and purchase -- for a cheaper price -- a military-style assault weapon whose sole purpose is to kill people. These mixed messages are confusing. We are safer, yet whenever Homeland Security thinks there is a credible threat, it raises the rainbow-colored terror alert level, even if it turns out that the threat was made years ago. "It takes years to plan an attack," they say, so it must be time now. Frankly, we could do without these mixed messages. We can't, on the one hand, be safer because we invaded a country that did not attack us and did not have weapons of mass destruction, while at the same time live in a world that is more volatile and less stable, with more people who hate us, while many of our home-grown terrorists have the potential to be better armed and kill more of us. Something is wrong with this picture. And I, for one, do not feel safer.