WHEN is a terrorist not a terrorist?

Bin Laden was financed and armed by the American CIA when killing Russians in Afghanistan - presumably his behaviour then was not objectionable. Can we expect the Russians to demand the extradition of these CIA officials to answer to the parents of those Russians sent home in bodybags as a result of this involvement?

Until America can show that it has clean hands in these matters we should be very careful not to mis-use the media to persuade our young, impressionable children to support ill-considered action now that the US has suffered just as its Government has caused others to suffer.

For years Noraid has filled the coffers of the IRA. But all attempts to persuade the American government to put a stop to this support of terrorism has fallen on deaf ears. Were the Omagh deaths any less terrible than those in the World Trade Centre?

We are constantly told the terrorists have no respect for life; that they hold their own lives cheaply as an explanation for their willingness to die for what they believe in. Tens of thousands of our own soldiers went "over the top" to what they knew was almost certain death at Ypres, the Somme and Arnhem. Was this because they held life cheaply?

I hold no brief for terrorism in any form but these questions must be asked to provide some balance to the media hype we are witnessing.

J Smith,

New Lane,

Huntington, York.

Updated: 10:20 Thursday, September 27, 2001