Let Al Qaeda Fund Civilian Reparations

“The Way to Make Amends” by David Corn (Opinion, Dec. 16) has great merit. Despite the fact that the deaths and injuries of the Afghan civilians from our bombs were unintentional, these people and their families are innocent victims and deserve at least monetary compensation and medical care.

Since frozen funds destined for use by Al Qaeda consist of millions of dollars, what better use could they be put to than to pay for this need? Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which sheltered its members, are those who made the bombing necessary. Unfreeze these funds and put them to work!

Robert Crawford

Venice

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One reasonable way to fund victims’ relief in Afghanistan would be to use the frozen funds of Al Qaeda and relief organizations suspected of aiding Al Qaeda. That way, the relief organizations’ stated mission would be fulfilled without any worry of diversion of funds to unwanted recipients.

Jim Ketcham

Malibu

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Nobody can question my patriotism. I am appalled by the carnage and horror caused by the Sept. 11 attacks, as most people on the planet are. Still, I don’t think Osama bin Laden planned those attacks by himself. There may have been input on his part and he might have paid for their execution, but one person--tape or not, real or not--does not substantiate President Bush’s crusade against Afghanistan.

Bush says, “I don’t care. Dead or alive, either way. It . . . doesn’t matter to me” (Dec. 15). That sounds a bit harsh and unprofessional to me. We as a people do not need the hard sell, just the results.

Tim Ashford

Culver City

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Among the more irritating things about media coverage of the current crisis were the incessant, mindless references to Kandahar as the “spiritual capital” of the Taliban. Just what was supposed to be so “spiritual” about a pack of sadistic sociopaths? Your revealing article, “A Lavish Palace for Omar’s Asceticism” (Dec. 13), about their sanctimonious leader’s predictably materialistic lair in that unfortunate city, underlines what it has been all about all along for all of these holy phonies: the money, the notoriety and the power.

Gilbert Dewart

Pasadena