President Bush claims the war in Iraq has made the world a safer place. Has it?

Over time, most Iraqis will be safer with Saddam gone, provided there is no civil war. For now, the disorder and lack of services has made most Iraqis less safe than they were last year. The lack of clean water particularly threatens young children with disease and death.

Civil war in Iraq is prevented only by the occupation forces, who probably will remain for years. These young men and women are much less safe than they were last year. Over 30 U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been killed since May 1, and it is getting worse, not better.

U.S. forces still have not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If they did not exist, then the war did nothing to improve our security. If they did exist, we no longer know who controls them, in which case the world is more dangerous.

Most of the evidence suggests Saddam did not cooperate with Osama bin Laden, so the war did not make us more secure from terrorism. Quite the contrary, the war on Iraq probably provided al Qaeda with many new recruits.

The Iraq war may have made Arab-Israeli peace more possible, but so far that does not look promising.

Finally, the President’s bungling diplomacy has left the United States with fewer friends and more enemies than ever before.

In short, this unnecessary war made the world more dangerous for Americans, not less.

James Richter, Lewiston