President’s job

To the editor:

It is the president’s job to take the immediate steps necessary to reassure a frightened public during an attack. He must act if for no other reason than to show the nation that someone is in charge.

It is not for a senator to take immediate action after an attack on the country. Senators have the luxury of knowing there is little they can do at that instant.

It is the swift boat commander’s job to make the life-and-death decisions of how to respond if his craft starts to take fire from the shore.

We know how President Bush responded to an attack on our nation, we know how Sen. Kerry responded to the attacks and we know how Lt. Kerry responded when faced with an attack on his crew.

We have no way of knowing how President Kerry would respond to 9-11; to say we do is simply conjecture. You may say that if he were president, John Kerry would respond to an attack no differently than he did as a senator. It is just as relevant to say that he would react as he did in Vietnam.

These assumptions obscure the real point. Were the president’s actions consistent with what you would hope for from your leader in time of crisis and why did you have to wait for three years to find out what those actions were?

Dean Shutt,

Lawrence