Dear Nicole,

I am sorry -- heartbroken, if you will believe me -- for your pain.

But Islamic fundamentalism IS a form of government in several of the the world's most repressive and powerful regimes.

You were attacked by hooligans who can -- one hopes -- be charged, prosecuted and jailed. The Kurds, and others, have no such hope.

Their lives are being extinguished, their wives and daughters raped, their leaders totured, their land seized, and their environment poisoned for no other reason than to realize a madman's dream of a theocratic dictatorship.

Every good wish and prayer that God may heal your pain. But Saddam, to put it bluntly, simply has to be killed.

Respectfully, Anthony Brown