Sept 11th - defence against terrorism

Here's another one to the Editor of the Guardian

The means that our leaders have used to defend ourselves against terrorism (A world that changed, Leader, September 11) comprise police action, intelligence, financial measures and military violence and torture. Police action and intelligence have been notably successful. Financial measures were incompetent, at least in the case of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose financial assets were frozen only after he kidnapped poor Ken Bigley. The question for advocates of military violence and torture is whether they have increased or decreased the threat of terrorism. Although this is a difficult question to answer categorically, common sense suggests that by increasing the sense of alienation and anger in the Muslim community, it has actually increased the level of the terrorist threat.