I am writing in reference to Travis Rowley’s Dec. 7 commentary, “Your fear: A useful emotion against terror.”

I don’t understand why Mr. Rowley (and people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh) find it necessary to set up straw men when talking about liberals and liberalism.

Liberals whom I know are just as concerned to combat terrorism as is Mr. Rowley. The question is how best to do it. Are frontal assaults with tanks and rockets an effective approach to combating global terrorism? It seems to me that George W. Bush’s policies in the Mideast have only created more terrorists by confirming the worst imaginings that Muslims have about Western materialism. Mr. Rowley’s basic premise is flawed. Fear is much more likely to produce an irrational response than a rational one — on either side.

GENE PERRY

Cranston

The writer is an emeritus professor of political science at Rhode Island College.