LENORE SKENAZY A nightmarish dream

Dear International Olympics Committee:
Hi! How ya doing? Good, I hope. I know you have a meeting coming up soon when you can toss out some of the nine cities you're considering for the 2012 summer Olympics. So I just thought, as a New York City resident, I'd add my two cents' worth:
TOSS US!
Thanks but no thanks! Hasta la vista! We need the Olympics like we need an extra arrow next to our name on Al-Qaida's "to do" list. I mean, man, the Olympics. They're a terrorism magnet.
Just look at what Athens is doing to get ready for its Olympic fun this summer. According to a New York Daily News report, they are going to deploy 45,000 cops, 17,000 firefighters and 35,000 soldiers.
That's an army!
And that's not counting the anti-aircraft missiles being readied and the armada of ships coming to guard the coast and 200 special forces who are training to deal with such seasonal delights as nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological threats.
Did I mention the spy satellites Athens is counting on that can read license plates from outer space? "OBL 1" "BMB MKR" "DEATH2USA" -- plates like that?
Now think of a threat like that coming to midtown Manhattan. This just isn't a scenario that gets me psyched to light a torch.
"Manhattan would be very difficult to secure," concurs Brian Hatch, a business consultant who was Salt Lake City's deputy mayor during the 2002 Olympic Games. Rival cities vying for the 2012 games know enough not to set them right in the center of town, Hatch says. In their plans, "Paris has purposely put their venues at the perimeter of the city," he says. "London is creating from scratch an urban park like Flushing Meadows." Midtown it is not.
Jay Kriegel, head of NYC2012, the organization lobbying for the Olympics, insists that New York would be extremely safe during the Games. "This is a city that manages big events better than any place in the world and has a history of handling them with great skill," he says.
Safety first
True. I am very glad we have such a great Police Department. And Fire Department. But on any given day they are already plenty busy keeping our bridges, tunnels, parks and buildings safe.
I won't even go into the economic argument -- although security is costing $1 billion in Athens -- because, frankly, money is money.
But blood, that's another story. And I sure don't want to think of any getting spilled here just so we can see, in person, some skinny teens balancing on a beam.
XSkenazy is a columnist for New York Daily News.