I would like to make a few points about the letter 'Afghanistan: why blame PAS?', Oct 15. The writer claims that the Afghans are victimised by the US. But according to the news, the US military is targeting military and terrorist targets, and not civilian targets. Nevertheless, it is true that there are bombs that missed their intended targets and hit civilian targets instead.

I personally think that the US bombings are rash and unjustified, but lets put ourselves in their shoes. If the Petronas Twin Towers were bombed, and we had the clout and military might of the US, wouldn't we be doing the same?

I would also like to point out that the US have been dropping food rations in Afghanistan. Even before the bombings, Afghan civilians were impoverished after decades of war and there has been reports that many Afghan were turning to drug trafficking to support their families. Therefore, Afghanistan was already in a desolate state before the bombings, and the distribution of food rations by the US is a commendable humanitarian act.

The writer claims that if the US provided proof to the Taliban of Osama bin Laden's guilt, the Taliban would have handed him over. This claim is unsubstantiated and I think it is more of a time-wasting ploy by the Taliban as claimed by the US. Prior to this, the Taliban claimed that they did not know where Osama was, that Osama was not in the country and now they declare that they are willing to hand him over to a third country if proof was provided.

Furthermore, there are reports that say that the Taliban and Osama are deeply intertwined with each other as Osama has provided financial and political backing for Taliban in the past, and has even done the Taliban a favour by successfully murdering the well-respected leader of the Northern Alliance, a thorn by the Taliban's side for many years.

And I don't think it is true that the world "punishes the whole Islamic world when unproven acts of atrocities were committed and blamed on Muslims". The terrorist acts on Sept 11 were indeed carried out by religious Muslim extremists, but any rational person would not blame the whole Islamic world for that.

There are extremists in every religion, and it is unfair to stereotype a religion with the acts of its' extremists.