Sir, - I remember 1939 in London, while the Nazi armies were well on the way to seizing Europe, the wringing of hands in the church I was attending about the need for more "peacemaking". The Peace Pledge Union was very much at work, and young people particularly were weaned towards "pacifism" by many leading ministers.
When war broke out as the Germans invaded Poland, it was necessary to decide whether to support the war effort, or to become a "conscientious objector", on the grounds that it was better to allow the Nazis to have their way than to plunge the world into a holocaust which could leave millions dead and nations ruined.
Several of my friends chose that course, made their excuses, were believed and survived the war. I chose to fight with the RAF, and survived. Millions of the less fortunate died, but helped to save the world from a system of terror, systematically applied, which could have made this earth an awful place.
We are once again faced with the choice: to fight regimes of terror, and destroy them before they destroy us, or to fearfully tremble before the wrath of their madness and let them prevail. We do have a choice. I am struck by the loud voices of those who do not wish to tackle terrorism head-on, as if by appeasing such complainants they will be satisfied and leave us alone.
Let us be clear. No amount of appeasement will call off the dogs of the war of terror, for they are intent upon ruling the world, and in their madness will use any weapon. So far thousands of innocent people have for several decades been cruelly tortured, maimed or murdered by the internationally-linked terrorist organisations, whose cells can be found in many nations. Other nations give them aid and succour, sometimes unwittingly, but always foolishly, for these evil groups work to seize them all - or to destroy them all even if they die themselves.
Now is not the time for appeasement. There can be no conscientious objectors now that war has been declared upon the world. We must act in the name of the state, or be murdered in the name of madness. If we had stopped the Nazi regime earlier, could we have saved the world from the subsequent horrors? Perhaps. Maybe the US would have been saved from the mayhem of Pearl Harbour? And London from the Blitz? Even Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the Bomb?
There will always be those who will turn a blind eye to the terror machines, and even some who will applaud the destruction wreaked in the name of some cause or other. Others will be so fearful that they avert their eyes, and then concede another demand of the terror-masters.
By fighting back now on an international basis we will not start the third World War. We will avert it, once and for all, for evil despises weakness and will surely seize us unless we seize it first. If we allow it to "go nuclear", the whole world could be destroyed. It is as urgent as that! - Yours, etc.,
Rev Desmond Mock, Newcastle, Co Down.