I find KBG's letter 'Who will protect us from extremists?' (Sept 17) in response to my letter not only deplorable but ludicrous.

According to a prestigious international news magazine the New Statesman "not only have Muslims been responsible for a tiny proportion of deaths caused by terrorism, but in recent years it is they who have been the greatest sufferers from state terrorism: in Palestine, Iraq, Bosnia, Chechnya and Somalia".

Even in Afghanistan, most deaths are actually due to the famine caused by international sanctions against them. To say that the sanctions were put in place by the US in order to root out terrorist like Osama bin Laden is like 'cracking a nut with a sledge hammer'.

The US and the world have long ago declared war on the third world, and the recent events are only an indication that the war has come home. It is a total fallacy to think that the WTC attack was an isolated incident caused by some crazy terrorist bent on destroying 'civilisation'.

We have to put everything in their proper context and perspective. Only then can we even begin to understand the reasons for the attack and change, in order to stop such attacks from taking place in the future.

Who is the terrorist? Who is it that needs protecting? Who will answer for the 5,000 children a month who have been dying every month for the past 11 years in Iraq? Thus is the story of the 'New World Order'; the leaders live but the people die for their leaders' crime. This was also the case in America on Sept 11.

However, the American public has the power of the vote, which is not the case with their counterparts in the third world.

God bless Humanity.