Sir, - I conclude from Peter Atkinson's letter (D&S, Nov 2) that he supports the repressive Taliban, or al Qa'eda, for they are the same, and its distorted ideology.

For every victim of a stray US bomb, there have been thousands of Afghan citizens executed by the Taliban for reasons such as not abiding by some obscure medieval rule dictated by an Islamic cleric.

Long before September 11, millions fled Afghanistan because of persecution. Despite western leaders saying the campaign is not a war against Islam, it is a fact that Islamic doctrine is being distorted by fanatics bent on creating paranoid war on the West.

Mr Atkinson may wish to ponder the following: 7,000 innocent lives were lost on September 11 at the hands of fanatics who see western culture as a threat. What kind of organisation induces 20 of their kind to commit suicide?

Afghan women are denied education, and we saw on TV a woman executed in front of her eight-year-old daughter. There are sensible Muslims who disagree with the fanatics. But they dare not voice their opinions for fear of attack on themselves and their families.

In this country, a substantial number of Muslims support and will fight for Osama bin Laden in his attacks on innocent civilians. If they had the slightest decency, they would surrender their British passports and return to their natural country.

It is significant to note Mr Atkinson's referral to "after 1945" because, if it were not for American assistance, Britain would have struggled to defeat the Germans and Japanese. It is tiresome to hear pacifists saying we should negotiate with the Taliban, which regards a free and just society as a threat. The effort would be about as useful as Chamberlain's agreement with Hitler in 1939. You cannot negotiate rationally with fanatics.

The Taliban are financed by trade in heroin; 80pc of the intake in this country comes from Afghanistan and bin Laden finances his activities from his investments in the West. Thousands of innocent men, women and children will be killed in the West if nothing is done quickly to stop the terrorist activities.

TREVOR NICHOLSON,

Mill Lane,

Leeming.

War consequences

Sir, - I refer to Mrs Sellers' letter (D&S, Oct 26) and Mr Peter Atkinson's reply last week. His letter is ill-informed and misleading, and clearly designed to give the impression the US carried out an unprovoked attack on Afghanistan and the civilian population.

Further, it is also designed to give the impression the attack consisted of deliberate bombing of Afghan civilians. This is nonsense. Mr Atkinson must learn to distinguish between the state of Afghanistan and the civilian population, and the Al Qu'eda and the Taliban. New York was attacked by Al Qu'eda terrorists controlled from bases in Afghanistan. Hence the retaliation. The US did not deliberately bomb Afghanistan and its civilians. The bombing was directed against selected Al Queda and Taliban targets. The US made every effort to avoid civilian casualties and any which did occur were unintentional.

An example of one of Mr Atkinson's more misleading statements is his reference to Mrs Sellers' letter. He states: "But she (Mrs Sellers) expressed not a word of pity for the Afghan civilians who, as I write, are being bombed by US planes". Mrs Sellers clearly stated it was a sad fact of war that civilians were killed in this sort of conflict.

But it is the latter half of this statement which is most misleading and surely designed to give the impression the US was deliberately bombing civilians. Thousands of innocent men, women and children may suffer in this war, but Mr Atkinson surely knows that both before and after September 11, thousands of Afghan civilians were tortured and murdered by Al Qu'eda and the Taliban; many, many more than might be killed by bombing.

Mr Atkinson suggests Mr Blair has provided only 200 Royal Marines to assist US forces. I assume he was being frivolous. The SAS, SBS, the Gulf Fleet, RAF units and commandos were, even as he wrote, on standby and represent a rather larger force.

G L PRATT

Brokes,

Richmond.

New look town

Sir, - May I say a few words of praise in favour of Stockton.

Recently we paid a visit to the new shopping precinct. What a lovely bright place it is and a great enhancement to Stockton.

We went into quite a few shops and found all the staff very pleasant and cheery and helpful.

How nice it was to pay a visit. Thank you, Stockton.

DOREEN TURNER

Dowber Way,

Thirsk