"Fighting terrorism
    Numerous articles identifying possible security threats at the local level illustrate, sadly, that terrorism is having an effect in terms of manpower and costs for homeland defense. We're probably fooling ourselves if we think that our nation can even remotely be defended against terrorism through whatever efforts. In a free society, terrorist targets are too numerous to be protected. Hopefully, we won't pursue a homeland defense strategy in each town and county to a point that it will bankrupt our nation.
    Thankfully, President Bush understands that the only strategy that will protect our nation from terrorism is to attack, infiltrate and destroy terrorist organizations. In that vein, money and manpower spent on homeland defense would best be used to destroy the threat as opposed to defend against it.
    I feel sure that Mr. Bush's aggressive strategy has protected our homefront to date, but there is no guarantee of freedom from attack tomorrow. As bad as it may sound, it just may be smart to accept occasional major homeland disasters (yes, including another September 11) in the short term, in order to expend all major resources necessary to annihilate the source as soon as possible.
    Hopefully, our nation will soon begin to understand this point before misspent resources allow an onslaught of terrorism to wreak havoc on our nation on the scale being experienced by Israel.'
    
    ARMOND SIMMONS
    Pell City, Ala."