THE bombers who are after us are not playing tag you're out - and nor can we ask our security forces to do so, as some would have them do.

Don't shoot to kill! Don't use stun guns! Don't keep them in captivity too long! Don't back America! Don't fight Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, however despicable!

These killers in our midst are out to slaughter and mutilate as many of us as they can catch within reach when they decide to wreak havoc, in the most horrendous ways possible, following the bidding of holy men and shouting 'God is great'.

Their leaders choose safer courses of action, such as sawing off the heads of helpless victims on film for the gratification of a world-wide audience and converts.

We now know that this mentality has been successfully spread on a huge scale and the resulting hatred is directed against the West, and us in particular. The time for reasoning has long passed with those whose minds have been poisoned in this way.

They must be defeated by any means possible. I do not believe that the majority of British God-fearing Muslims, who must despair of them just as much as we do, want to see our people dying unnecessarily in the process.

Our security forces are fighting for a way of life which many around the world would give anything to be able to share with us. Many have fashioned their own country on ours.

George Appleby,

Leighton Croft,

Clifton, York.

Updated: 09:42 Tuesday, August 02, 2005