The Case for War, and the Case for Restraint

To the Editor:

Re "Bush Orders Heavy Bombers Near Afghans; Demands Bin Laden Now, Not Negotiations" (front page, Sept. 20):

We can now see that the life of a country or any other international organization is nasty, brutish and short. America has friends and enemies, but when push comes to shove, we have only ourselves to defend our hard-won freedom.

We must now depend on the people who will do the dirty work of striking back. Pilots, diplomats, bankers, computer technicians and fearless politicians will all be needed, and we must support them without reserve.

Our strength and longevity as a free country hinge on our ability to make the life of terrorist organizations and the countries that support them nasty, brutish and especially short. Let's go to war.

JOHN PAINTER
Whitehouse Station, N.J.
Sept. 20, 2001
•
To the Editor:

Re "Bush Orders Heavy Bombers Near Afghans; Demands Bin Laden Now, Not Negotiations" (front page, Sept. 20): The military should not reveal its plans to strike at the enemy. The public and especially Osama bin Laden do not need to know the details of our troop movements. During World War II, we had a slogan, "Loose lips sink ships." Can't we keep a few secrets?

HELEN FEALY
New York, Sept. 20, 2001
•
To the Editor:

Re "Bush's Advisers Split on Scope of Retaliation" (front page, Sept. 20):

Let us hope that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his supporters, who are seeking time to build an international coalition, prevail.

Strong, damaging attacks would simply unify Muslim countries against us. Instead, we can use this horrific act to unify Americans and the majority of Muslims, who do not use the Koran to justify the acts of a power seeker intent on world domination. Osama bin Laden will be defeated only if his own Islamic world turns against him.

Courage sometimes requires us to be smart as well as brave.

NICKY WOLF
Tiburon, Calif., Sept. 20, 2001
•
To the Editor:

William Safire (column, Sept. 20) is exactly right: we should use radio to get the truth directly to the Afghan people. The Afghans do not know that their starvation is the result of their dictators' efforts to protect Osama bin Laden. We allow the Taliban to monopolize all information available to Afghan men, women and children.

We made the same mistake for years with Slobodan Milosevic, enabling him to have exclusive access to the ears, eyes and minds of the people of Serbia. Radio, loud and clear, is inexpensive and effective. But if we are to succeed in building opposition to terrorism, we must pay as much attention to launching ideas as we do to launching bombs...

and so on...

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/21/op...rchpv=nytToday

---

Many varied opinions!

---

Many Travelers on Airlines Appeal for Tighter Security

Despite efforts by government agencies and the airlines to make flying safer in the aftermath of last week's hijackings and terrorist attacks, many passengers say the authorities have still not done enough to improve airport security.

At large airports around the country, like those in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, detection devices and security officials have not recognized items like scissors and syringes that could be used as weapons or stopped passengers with phony tickets, interviews showed.

All airports have begun putting into effect new federal security measures, and their presence is evident everywhere, including additional X-ray screenings, body pat-downs and multiple identification checks from the ticket counter to security checkpoints to the departure gates.

But so many air passengers have complained in recent days of lapses and uneven application of measures that the Federal Aviation Administration began asking visitors to its Web site today to send in their own suggestions by e-mail, fax and telephone "on how to improve aviation."

"The call volume since last week's tragic events has been considerable," the agency conceded.

"We've done a lot, but a lot more work needs to be done," Paul Takemoto, an agency spokesman, said, acknowledging the need for additional security measures and a more even application of them.

Mr. Takemoto declined to discuss security issues at any specific airport, saying, "We don't want to create targets, and we don't want people thinking some airports may be more vulnerable than others."

For now, that appears to be the case. Interviews with dozens of people who have flown in the last week revealed all sorts of leaks at airports or at least enough to suggest that in many places travelers are subjected to no more scrutiny than they had been before the recent hijackings.

Robin Frank, who flew this week from Los Angeles to Kennedy Airport in New York, said she intentionally carried a 5 1/2-inch-long scissors through airport metal detectors as her personal safety gauge to see whether she would board the plane. After the item was not detected, she called airport personnel's attention to the scissors.

Kara L. Nichols said she returned home after flying from Tortola in the Caribbean, through San Juan, P.R., to Baltimore-Washington International with a Swiss Army knife in her backpack that eluded detection both in Tortolla and San Juan.

"It just frightens me that with all of the alerts and coming only a few days after events of last week that they weren't checking any harder," said Ms. Nichols, 37, an Internet executive.

A flight attendant for United Airlines, who would not let her name be used, arriving for work today at O'Hare Airport in Chicago said she was alarmed to see that United employees, not security personnel or police officers, were checking the identification of passengers and that passing through security checkpoints, her bags were not thoroughly inspected, allowing her to carry through a pair of hair-cutting shears, nail clippers and a nail file.

Tim Pratt, who arrived at Kennedy on a United flight from San Francisco, is a diabetic. He said the 10 syringes he carried went undiscovered by security personnel.

A New York Times reporter leaving Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta made it through all security check points by showing only an itinerary he had typed. Another Times reporter leaving the Miami airport told a US Airways agent that she was carrying two flammable items that are now prohibited on flights, nail polish and polish remover. The agent, she said, told her: "Don't worry about it. Just see if they catch it at the security checkpoint..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/21/na...rchpv=nytToday


Fighting Terrorism on a Global Front

...Terrorism threatens every society. As the world takes action against it, we have all been reminded of the need to address the conditions that permit the growth of such hatred and depravity. We must confront violence, bigotry and hatred even more resolutely. The United Nations' work must continue as we address the ills of conflict, ignorance, poverty and disease.

Doing so will not remove every source of hatred or prevent every act of violence. There are those who will hate and who will kill even if every injustice is ended. But if the world can show that it will carry on, that it will persevere in creating a stronger, more just, more benevolent and more genuine international community across all lines of religion and race, then terrorism will have failed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/21/opinion/21ANNA.html



[This message has been edited by doc (edited 09-21-2001).]