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The U.S. would get a lot more understanding, empathy and support if it had chosen to be helpful and humanitarian to the people of Afghanistan over the past few years. The country needed assistance to be free of the misery, famine and destruction imposed on it for ages by its neighbors and by civil unrest. Now, under the guidance of the inexperienced President Bush, one cannot look for anything sane or merciful. I don't expect this fiasco to be over soon. EVERTON M. SANTOS Brasilia
Given the fact that the refugee situation, particularly in already strained Pakistan, is going to get even worse, Western leaders must be prepared to make a greater commitment to humanitarian-relief efforts. This must involve accepting Afghan refugees into the U.S. and Britain. It also means that the bombing must stop long enough to allow humanitarian-aid agencies to deliver much needed relief to accessible areas sheltering Afghan civilians. FEDERICO MOSCOGIURI London
Is Common Sense Dead?
I am not a terrorist, but if I were, I'd thank you for giving me so many hints on how to make attempts at mass destruction more effective [TERRORISM, Oct. 29]. In a single short article--"Can a Nuke Really Fit into a Suitcase?"--you gave information on the availability of a suitcase nuke, what type of plutonium and uranium one would need to make one, and, totally unbelievable, which area of a nuclear power reactor should be attacked to incur the highest number of casualties. And you are not the only one. All over the press and the Internet, people are publishing all the material they can get their hands on, just to be first. Don't you know that there are people out there putting together the small pieces of information you so naively give away? Didn't Sept. 11 open your eyes to what can be done with such facts? You should have some common sense. DAN SOLOMON Montreal
Sabin's Blessing
Reading about the threat of smallpox [TERRORISM, Oct. 29], I was reminded of the risk of polio in the 1950s and '60s. Surely one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of the U.S. government was providing, free of charge, the little sugar cube that contained the Sabin oral immunization for polio. I remember going with my family to the local school auditorium and waiting our turn. My daughter was not even a toddler then, but old enough to enjoy that lump of sugar. What a blessing it was! Now we are confronted with a danger greater than polio, frightening because we don't even know what form it may come in. The government should launch an all-out campaign to develop vaccines for the diseases terrorists might inflict on us and give everyone a chance to receive the vaccine. The cost would be minuscule compared with the misery and money involved in treating and containing the diseases if they strike. So far, most of us have been lucky, but how long will our luck hold? BETTY E. WHITEHEAD Melbourne, Fla.
Giving Up Some Freedoms