Some seem to have not throughly considered the solid and convincing arguments Shaukat Ali and Disappointed put forward against US presence in the Straits of Melaka.

It is not that I have no regards to the relevant stakeholders. It is a question of keeping the more severe threats in sight.

Foreign military, once allowed in, will be there for a long time if not permanently and it will probably be hard to ask them to leave. Things like negotiating power aside, we ought to think ahead of time.

While the present administrations may be relatively more benign, this is no guarantee future ones will not take advantage of others. This is particularly relevant for ambitious countries with little religious, cultural, political or historical ties with countries like ours. Sovereignty must not be taken too lightly.

Piracy, along with terrorism, is comparable to robbery and rape - heinous crimes which we have to face and deal with constantly. It pays to take up the responsibility of defending our waters ourselves. It is only by becoming truly independent that we can truly feel secure.

Much of modern-day terrorism is due to religious fanaticism. To solve the problem, as Dr Mahathir Mohamad put it, we should look at the source. Consider too the Chinese saying that 'a water source far away is useless in putting out a fire nearby fire'.

If the US is so capable of defending the straits against terrorists, the Sept 11 tragedy and the massive suicidal bombings in Iraq would not have occurred.

Comparisons of budgets and coastlines are not necessarily useful as countries have varied problems to tackle and different political agendas. It is useful, however, if we can work out efficient security measures to protect our waters.

Whatever the suggestion turns out to be, for God's sake, don't bring battles to Malaysia.