P. KAISERMAN (Your Letters, Nov 16) says he is a "dove of peace". Good for him.

But as for settling differences around the table, that is all well and good when one is debating differences of policy. But in the case of September 11, we are dealing with a fundamental hatred of the Western way of life.

Bin Laden was given two weeks to give himself up before even one American bomb was dropped on Afghanistan. You cannot have a small group of terrorists holding a nation to ransom.

P. Kaiserman served in the Second World War so he must have seen how the "War Machine" started in 1930s Germany. Does he think that throughout those years politicians did not sit down round the table and talk with Hitler? Sadly, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Thank God the Americans stood by Britain in the last war. Many young Americans gave their lives along with other nationalities, to give this country the right to practise whatever religion or way of life it chooses, even for people to live as "doves of peace"!

TERRY HIGGINS,

Middlesex Drive, Bury.