Bin Laden Is More Than a ‘Violent Criminal’

Jonathan Turley says Osama bin Laden is not a threat to the nation but a threat “like any other violent criminal” (Commentary, Sept. 13).

An act that kills thousands of Americans on our own soil, grounds all air traffic and closes most government offices, physically destroys much of the nation’s financial center with grave impact to our economy, targets the president and the White House, attacks the Pentagon and comes close to wiping out the secretary of Defense and much of our military high command is not merely the act of a violent criminal. It is a direct threat to our country. Excepting a few nuclear powers, no sovereign nation is capable of inflicting this much destruction on our shores. The challenge of the “war” is to destroy the foe without creating new enemies and to minimize harm to the innocent.

Gary Brown

Santa Monica

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As “Bin Laden Tops List of Suspects” (Sept. 12) points out, early speculation has been dead wrong in the past. It is important that we hit back at the right people. If it was not really Bin Laden and the U.S. bombs and kills civilians in Afghanistan, for example, maybe we’re not much better than they are. We could also give these terrorist creeps what they seem to most desperately want: a “holy war” between the U.S. and most of the Islamic world.

Mark McIntyre

Los Angeles

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Forget threatening to bomb Afghanistan and the Taliban if they fail to turn over Bin Laden to us. Instead, let’s threaten to gather up all of their women and send them to college. In fact, why don’t we do that anyway?

Shelley Bookspan

Santa Barbara

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Bin Laden must have his wealth hidden in a bank account somewhere. When it is established beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was involved, the U.S. and our allies should put pressure on that financial institution, wherever it is, to freeze his assets in order to pay reparations for the victims and the $20 billion damage. If it refuses, then it’s time we draw that line in the sand and use military force against anyone who harbors terrorists and their money.

Will Ray

Burbank

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Trying to stop terrorism is like trying to stop crime. When we can eradicate crime, we can eradicate terrorism.

Marvin Landfield

Mission Viejo