Local Expert Addresses U.S. Security on Eve of 9/11 Anniversary

Cherry Valley, IL - The photographs on P.S. Ruckmans wall show he comes from a family with a prominent military background. "My father`s a drill instructor in the army and his dad was a colonel and his dad was a general," says Ruckman, Associate Professor of Political Science at Rock Valley College. His grandfather was a veteran of World Wars I and II, as well as a chief engineer for the Manhattan Project. Ruckmans great-grandfather won a distinguished award medal from Congress. Ruckman attributes that military heritage for feeling fortunate as a country on 9/11. "As well as feeling grief and sorrow, I remember feeling very thankful that day that that`s such a rare occurrence in our history," says Ruckman. "We`re still skeptical about how safe we are. But the bottom line is we certainly haven`t had anything like 9/11 happen again here. So if you`re the president you try to sell that." Ruckman says by labeling the military actions following 9/11 the ‘war on terror, the Bush Administration is at fault for Americans thinking theres no end in sight. "You don`t win a war on terror, like you don`t win a war on crime or a war on drugs," says Ruckman, "Those things never end." Ruckman argues that centralizing the countrys intelligence resources under the Homeland Security Act represents the biggest threat to the post-9/11 nation because sensitive information is shared with more people. "If we ever have a leak like we`ve had before in the past, we`ve had our share of those...spies, double agents, moles," says Ruckman, "If we have that happen again, we`ll be hit harder than we`ve ever been hit before."