I'm writing in response to 'War is Afghanistan's best chance' by Elanjelian Venugopal, New York City. First of all, words do not speak the whole truth. We should not just listen to what America has to say about the attack but also see their actions.

It is true that President Bush has declared that it is a war against terrorism and not against Islam. But is Osama bin Laden a terrorist? The US has named him as the man behind the Sept 11 attacks minutes after they happened. Surely no investigation can be done within minutes. Even until now they fail to provide any clear evidence of Osama's involvement.

A choice given to the Taliban to hand over Osama (without first providing evidence) or face the consequences is not a choice at all. America said it wants to bring Osama to justice, but wanting him dead or alive sounds like they already judge him as guilty. So what kind of justice would he expect from the US? That really puts the Taliban in a really difficult position. So the Taliban came up with a few suggestions.

They offered to put Osama on trial in Afghanistan or in a special court established under the Organisation of Islamic Country to judge Osama and the US would have to bring the evidence to court. And the Taliban stressed that they would negotiate if the US did not like the idea. However, the US arrogantly said time for talk has ended, and that it is now time for action and insisted the Taliban hands over Osama.

If one really wants justice, one must explore all possible diplomatic actions until they are exhausted before going to war. But America was never interested in diplomacy but war. Why?

The Al-Qaeda is an organisation which trains Mujahideen to defend oppressed Muslims around the world, for example in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya etc. Its base is in Afghanistan where the ruling government is the Taliban. That is why America, representing the West, is always thinking of bombing Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government and finish the Al-Qaeda organisation.

So if we look closely, we will know that Bush really means "crusade" when he said it. But he later has to cover it up as he realised it is easier to fight Islam in the name of terrorism rather than openly fight it. At the least, he might get support from the secular Islamic countries.

It is also not fair to blame the Taliban for the present state of Afghanistan as it had just come into power in 1996 and it is not easy to repair the destruction of a 20-year war. At least they have brought a few improvements, like preventing crimes to the extent that the only police needed is just traffic police, and also banning opium business, etc.

I totally disagree with Venugopal that we should only protest if America failed in its mission to give better life to the Afghans. Let's not repeat the same mistake that we had done in agreeing with the UN to bomb and impose economic sanctions on Iraq. We are now regretting our action by trying to help the Iraqi when it is obviously quite late.

War is never a solution.