WHOEVER advised The Queen recently to quote from Burke that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing is evidently in good company with Julian Thake (You Say, November 1).

However, this falls seriously short of a reasonable criticism of those who do not share the view that waging an undeclared war on another country is a morally acceptable or productive tactic.

An alternative is not to do nothing but approach the problem and its many possible causes differently. I don't recall any UK government advocating the bombing of Belfast to root out terrorism nor the Spanish to bomb Bilbao.

I would suggest that it might very well take greater resolve, nerve and statesmanship on our leaders' parts not to respond by the endless cycle of tit-for-tat violence.

We are all savvy enough, too, to regard with considerable cynicism the suddenly formed alliances with countries who have something to gain such as the writing-off of debt.

What a pity that the continent of Africa does not happen to be on the flight-path to Afghanistan to achieve a sorely-needed cancellation of debt in many countries.

We were friends once with Saddam Hussein, now we hate him; we backed bin Laden against the Soviet Union, now we hate him and love the Russians and apparently the Chinese, too.

I don't see much moral high ground here nor an effective way to achieve the objective.

WENDY HANDS,

Upton-upon-Severn.