STEVE Metcalfe (Letters July 13) blames the London bombings not on the bombers but on the imperialistic West. He is misguided.

First, even if the cause of the bombings was reaction to 'imperialistic acts of military aggression' such as the invasion of Iraq, the bombers were responsible for their actions. Tony Blair was not.

The bombers chose to kill. I doubt that Blair helped train them and so to imply that Blair is responsible is to confuse justification with explanation.

The bombers might have considered their actions justified, but they themselves undertook those actions. Could a poor person who robs a rich person invoke class inequality as a justification? Metcalfe doubtless would, for he cites 'economic and social injustices which lie at the heart of hatred'.

Second, even if one were to say that the bombers were merely responding to the injustice dealt their brethren, are bombs a justified response to heartfelt grievance? If not, then the bombers remain culpable.

And of course Metcalfe must establish that events like the establishment of democracy for the first time in Iraq or, outside of Israel, anywhere in the Middle East is an injustice.

Third, even if the spur to the bombings was the invasion of Iraq, the hatred of the West preached by radical segments of Islam did not begin with Iraq.

9/11 antedated the invasion, just as Muslim terrorism against Israeli Jews long antedates the 1967 war.

If the cause is long-standing Western imperialism, why stop there? Why not blame the Crusades? Those who hate the West hate its success--not just military but also scientific and political. The only acceptable solution would be to undo the course of modernity.

Robert Segal. Lancaster.