Bush Has Made Us Safer

Are terrorists targeting Europe because it's a softer target?

Islamic extremists have been targeting Europe instead of the United States because the Bush administration has made a domestic attack much more difficult through improvements in U.S. traveler screening and border security, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.

"We have significantly reduced the risk of a major attack in the short term," Chertoff told a group of Washington Post reporters and editors before meeting with President Bush to mark the fifth anniversary of the Department of Homeland Security's creation.

"One of the reasons we're seeing more attacks in Europe is because they think it's easier," Chertoff said. He noted almost annual attacks since 2004 in Madrid, London and Glasgow and disrupted plots in Denmark, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.

Perhaps opening our borders to terrorists is one of the ways that Democrats plan to make nice with Europe.