WHAT amazes me is that after the US attack many Americans don't realise why they are so hated by certain regions.

The US has a long history over the past 50 years of enforcing injustice on many of the Middle Eastern states and, additionally, on anyone who doesn't aid them economically or politically.

After the Cuban revolution the US launched many secret sabotage attacks, even though at that point Cuba had done nothing to provoke them. The aim of these was to increase Castro opposition but it actually had the opposite effect.

What they plan to do now is similar.

By planning to attack these terrorists in the way that is most probable (missiles etc), they are certain to cause a great number of civilian casualties and enrage further the Arabic people -- cutting off one head with the certainty of another rising in its place with more resentment than the previous.

Why is it so difficult for American citizens and politicians to see the harm their bias intervention often has on the world; how does their financial and political support of Israel, among others, make them any better than the wrongful deeds those groups perpetrate on oppressed peoples?

The war, as President Bush has put it, will not be won. It is arrogant of a powerful nation to believe that with a strong conventional force an unconventional war can be "won."

This enemy is different; we do not know who they are. Their number, abilities, locations, and supporters, are hidden, and they have a recruitment drive that will be fed off conflict itself -- this is guerilla warfare on supreme scale and will intrude into the daily lives of many, many innocent victims increasing the chance of nuclear reprisal by a desperate group of bullied states.

By fighting against the tide, Bush does nothing but stoke a fire, leaving the only solution to their problems (accurate retaliation with ground troops in combination with local forces, then adaptation of foreign policy) to fall.

PETER FISHER, Whalley Road, Wilpshire, Blackburn.