The following letter was published yesterday in The Orange County Register.

Your timely editorial "Superfluous Bombing," pointing out the bankrupt foreign policy of the US government, which continues to depend on fomenting acts of war against Iraq, was answered today with an act of war from one of our adversaries.

The hubris and arrogance that our government has exhibited since "winning" WW II, is finally finding some pointed retaliation. At last, we are getting to suffer some of the punishment we have been visiting on other nations.

The sanctions against Iraq continue into their 11th year. In spite of the fact that no legitimate "act of war" has been voted by Congress, our planes still bomb Saddam Hussein on a regular basis, and kill some of his innocent people.

We have troops in Colombia helping the establishment to fight a winless "drug war," meanwhile, we're dropping bombs on potted coca plants and destroying poor farmers.

We are continuing to bomb other locations in Central and South America in this insane war on drugs. We are bogged down in an endless commitment in Kosovo.

And we have troops stationed in 131 countries around the world, in some places, raping and killing their teenagers.

The arrogance exhibited by our own government against our own people, coercing us to do what "they" think is "good for us" has been visited against foreigners for 50 years. And now finally we're getting some of our own medicine.

So what do the talking heads talk about? Why REVENGE, of course. How dare those towel heads hijack our planes and kill our civilians. We are AMERICA, the smartest and best people on earth!!!

Well, some people are sick of our government's perpetual intervention in their lives, our perpetual meddling in their nations and in their political conflicts. So they return some of the violence against us that we have visited against them.

I hope that cool heads can prevail in this time of crisis. I hope the average American can realize that the WTC attacks are not "unprovoked" at all, but are responses to endless provocations by our own misguided, insane, arrogant foreign policy.

And its time that We, THE PEOPLE, held OUR GOVERNMENT responsible for its misbehavior.