Sen. Susan Collins has argued that President Bush should be re-elected, since he is the best person to provide us with security. That contention is debatable.

It is no secret that Bush shuns complexity, and surely we live in complex times. In three years after Sept. 11, according to certain forums, there are still major gaps in securing potential terrorist targets. In test cases, unauthorized access has been gained at such places as chemical plants, nuclear facilities and even at airports.

President Bush has been slow in taking certain recommended actions, only doing so when it was the politically correct thing to do, such as in the case of poor intelligence.

Rather than go after, in a serious way, the major contributor to our insecurity, Osama bin Laden, he authorized the attack on Iraq, which has cost many lives, squandered financial and other resources, and reduced our ability to respond to other major threats.

In many ways, he has increased the number of people wanting to harm our country, the Iraq misadventure being a major source of terrorist recruitment.

Physical security is not the only issue. Other security issues are financial and freedom from governmental intrusion in our affairs. A major accomplishment of bin Laden’s attack and Bush’s response may be an erosion of those rights given to us in our Bill of Rights and an economic disruption due to an overwhelming financial burden. One must wonder if Bush sees these as concerns.

John Pehek, Leeds

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