The Wall Street Journal-20080216-There Is a Cost for Terror Sometimes Paid in Blood

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There Is a Cost for Terror Sometimes Paid in Blood

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Thank you for your editorial "Dead in Damascus" (Feb. 14). It has always troubled me that the evil men who killed 241 U.S. Marines, 58 French soldiers and 63 civilians in the 1983 Beirut truck bombing have never, until now, been brought to justice. It has been my belief that the failure to punish those responsible, together with our precipitous withdrawal from Lebanon, led to many of the attacks, including 9/11, that we have experienced since.

While we, as a nation (and particularly those such as myself who espouse the Christian faith), must avoid taking vengeance for its own sake, it is absolutely essential that the enemies of this nation understand that when they bring death and mayhem to us or our friends, that they will either be brought to justice, or hunted down and killed should they elude justice.

On Sept. 11, 2001, following the dastardly attack upon this nation, I faced a class of shocked students. I was asked what the U.S. would do. My answer was that on Dec. 7, 1941, this nation was subjected to an unprovoked, surprise attack by the imperial forces of Japan. Within a decade of that date all of the men who planned and led that attack, including Admiral Yamamoto, had died by American hands, either in the war or through the application of American-led legal process.

My greatest disappointment in the presidency of George W. Bush is that Osama bin Laden is neither dead nor in a U.S. prison.

We are paying a high price for this in both life and treasure and will continue to so as long as he remains free. I hope, but doubt, that all of our current candidates for president understand this.

Theodore A. Feitshans

Department of Agricultural

& Resource Economics

North Carolina State University

Raleigh, N.C.