Jez Macdonald (Letters, September 27) writes "the US should put $20 billion into tackling poverty in Afghanistan and resolving the Palestinian situation".
Has he not considered that any terrorist-supporting country can then say, in effect, give me money, which could be used for weapons and more terrorist activitities or else we will kill innocent men, woman and children in the US and around the world - in other words, blackmail.
The only way to combat terrorism is to hit them harder than they hit you. It is no good trying to have talks with them about peace. We have tried that and the "softly softly" approach with the IRA and it has not worked with them. They simply split forces and say "It's not us but the splinter group", then drag out talks to wring out every concession they can without giving up a single bullet.
The time to give aid is after the terrorists have been eliminated.
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