Terrorism: Focus on Causes as Well as Effects

Re “U.S. Boosting Allies’ Military Aid,” March 5: By continuing to bomb an ousted regime in Afghanistan, and now with billions of taxpayer dollars in giveaways to places like Indonesia, Uzbekistan and a half-dozen other rat holes in the region, we are only fanning the flames of hatred for America. If this administration doesn’t stop propagating its war-making machine in other Muslim countries, the so-called evildoers who have made a pledge to God to destroy us will, I fear, have their day of retribution, sooner or later.

What makes our leaders think they can actually prevent a nuking of New York? We hear that just such a threat was considered “credible” by the administration last October, yet state and local officials were never informed. Why? Because there was nothing they could have done to stop it, only create panic.

The only way to save ourselves is to stop military action in Afghanistan, pull out of all Muslim countries (we can still watch from space) and then focus all Defense Department resources on homeland security, improved intelligence gathering and the covert, surgical elimination of all terrorist organizations wherever they are found.

Toby Keeler

Topanga

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In response to those who wrote letters to The Times in support of “Democrats Question a Widening War Effort” (letters, March 5), I have a question: How many more World Trade Center events do you want before you understand the absolute need for our all-out war on terrorism?

Jim Shade

West Covina

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The present administration’s war on terrorism should more properly be called a war on terrorists. That objective is necessary and correct at this point, but to fight terrorism and the causes of that phenomenon requires more than bombs and the killing of some gangsters. It requires a review of our policies that have helped groups feed the flames of hatred against us. However, without that review this war will never end.

Our foreign policy seems to be run by the search for big bucks in trade. We have been willing to support repressive governments anywhere if it is profitable. We preach principles, but our actions belie those principles and leave behind millions of people who listen to us and decide we are hypocrites, or worse. I hope the administration will begin to deal with the causes of terrorism, not just the effects.

George Ives

Los Angeles

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Every person who has expressed any concern or sympathy for the treatment of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay should be ashamed of themselves and sickened by their misguided empathy (“Navy SEAL Was Captured and Killed,” March 6). These people have been loudly chastising our government that these prisoners don’t have ample living space, haven’t been given the right atmosphere for their daily prayers or aren’t being served the correct food. Well, we now know exactly how the Al Qaeda and Taliban treat their prisoners of war. They take the prisoner behind a bush, put a bullet through his head and throw his body back in the open for his buddies to collect.

Diane M. Smith

Valencia