Letter: War against Saddam did not improve security

Friday, July 18, 2003 | 6:14 a.m.

Saddam Hussein may have been as terrible a tyrant as he was made out to be, but he was deterrable. When the Israeli Air Force demolished his unfinished nuclear reactor, Saddam did not retaliate. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction but he didn't use them when he was getting his butt kicked out of Kuwait. He didn't use WMD to defend Baghdad. Saddam's restraint was based on fear. He had reason to believe that if he used WMD against the United States, Tikrit and Baghdad would become radioactive rubble.

Saddam is no longer deterrable. About two days before his statue was toppled, he sent a truck to the bank with orders to fill it up. Saddam and his truckload of cash vanished. President Bush has been trying to win the war against terrorists by drying up their financial resources.

But terrorists now have a patron with enough cash to finance every terrorist cell in the world.

In a recent radio address, Bush hinted that the missing WMD were hauled off by looters. In January Bush assured us that Saddam had 500 tons of chemical weapons and the means to deliver them. Thieves steal to sell. So if Bush is correct that these supplies were stolen by looters, the black market in illicit weapons is saturated. And with Saddam bankrolling them, eager buyers have ready cash.

I do not feel more secure because Saddam was deposed.

VERNON BOSTICK