Letter: Bin Laden winning even after death

Terrorism has two major purposes: The primary purpose of terrorism is to strike terror in the hearts of the enemy, which in this case is us .

Knowing they cannot win in a traditional war, al-Qaida has successfully made us fearful of the next terrorist strike, or the next or the next. We have invested many millions of dollars in national security, billions of dollars in direct military expenses, and trillions of dollars in military boondoggles -- all with money taken from social service programs, to protect us from a handful of Islamic extremists.

Which brings us to the second purpose of terrorism, which is vengeance -- to bring our nation and its citizens down to the quality of life they experience, holding us responsible for their poverty, making us pay for what they consider to be our evil deeds, and being the force behind the increasing poverty in America.

Bin Laden may be dead, but his terrorism is winning. When will our leaders awaken to the fact that we cannot win this war, that there are solutions to problems other than warfare, and that we should bring all of our troops home now?

Robert Shorin, Syosset