I am absolutely aghast at the views that MGG Pillai has been spewing forth. To lay the blame of this week's horrendous attacks at the feet of American foreign policies is an injustice to the thousands of innocent civilians who have lost their lives, and to the thousands of children who would have now become orphans.

I can only say a prayer for a man who in his pursuit of literary acknowledgment, has chosen to wipe the eyes of those still crying from this tragedy with his insensitivity. Sadder still, there are those within our own borders who have been vocally preaching the same call akin to Pillai's sentiments.

Views like these at a time of such dire emotional distress for the nation of Americans can only serve to inflame their passion for revenge. Where soothing words urging for cooler heads to prevail would have been better adjudged, these authors have chosen to hide behind the guise of neutrality and objectivity for their own personal satisfaction and a furtherance of their own egoistic trips. In his want to depict himself as a writer espousing freedom and fairness, Pillai has taken the lead in showing forth his hypocrisy and stained view of world events.

There can be no justification for an attack on civilian lives. When the US has in the past caused civilian casualties, it has been subject to harsh criticism within its own borders, and from its own lawmakers. Contrast that to the action of the Taliban and their allies, who do not brook any criticism.

The government of the US, whether we like it or not, has built in its legislative system a credible way for society, the people, to govern the actions of its government. Contrast that to a Saddam Hussein-like government that bows to the whims and fancy of Saddam. While not being perfect in execution, the American system allows for effective checks and balances.

Pillai also alludes to gross injustices wrought on Arab civilisations by the Great Satan. Perhaps Pillai failed to remember that the US did not invade Iraq, it liberated Kuwait, an Arab nation conquered by the Iraqis. It liberated Kuwait while the Kuwaitis were being raped and tortured and in so, put and end to an occupation that would have been a catastrophe for the Arab world had Saddam been allowed to march into Saudi Arabia.

Pillai speaks of the PLO, fondly at times, to underline his solidarity for them, but forgot that it was the Arabs who first turned their combined regular armies against Jewish refugees (and lost), and it was the Arabs who then pulled out, accepting the breaking of the nation of Palestine. The PLO was then instrumental in fermenting violence in Jordan to the extent that King Hussein felt it fit to turn his Arab army against them. They then moved to Lebanon where again their presence fermented war, and the eventual destruction of Lebanon.

I will not speak for or against the Palestinians, but the PLO has been a force of instability in every place they landed, and to place their predicament at the footsteps of those whose lives were lost is preposterous.

A litmus test then would be appropriate for the likes of Pillai and his generation of objective writers. Would you rather be under the government of a Saddam-led Iraq or a Bush-led America? Would it be capitalism or Taliban fundamentalism? Answer that, and live by it before you start telling the orphans of this demented attack that they deserved whatever came their way.