BEND SOME CIVIL RIGHTS, BUT NOT WITHOUT DELIBERATION

Dear editor:

Re: "Unlimited detentions become battleground over civil rights" (A-1,
Sept. 26):

Terrorism is being addressed by our politicians with "unified" calls for
more power.

Of course action is required. I'm not a pacifist, but neither am I part of
the other extreme: big government. What our politicians ignore in their
solidarity is that there are ways we could reduce bureaucracy, increase
freedom _and_ reduce or eliminate terror at the same time:

* End the Federal Aviation Administration's assault on the Second
Amendment. If only it were legal, the airlines' insurance companies likely
would have required that all planes be protected by plain-clothes guards
with concealed firearms. This alone easily could have prevented the WTC
disaster.

* End the War on Drugs. Drugs are a major source of funding for terrorist
groups. Most of those who want drugs already use them. We need not funnel
money to terrorists on top of that.

* Devise a Middle East exit strategy. America's founders warned against our
government's involvement in "entangling alliances." Our global military is
a potent source of anti-Americanism. We are not Eastern Europeans, and
should not act like them. We need defense, but if we continue to try to run
the world, we will be in for thousands of years of war -- just like Eastern
Europe.

By taking only those actions that expand their own power, the president and
Congress cause me to fear for the future.

Dan Litwin, San Diego