Our national nightmare, which began on Sept. 11, only has increased due to the recent anthrax attacks and scares that plague New York City, Florida and Nevada.

It started in a publishing company in Florida and since has spread to attacks on NBC and the New York Times. Then out west to Nevada. And now, a baby of an ABC producer has been exposed.

We haven’t had an anthrax case in this country in a quarter-century. Now we have 12. People in this great nation are concerned that the air they breathe will become the thing that destroys them.

So I beseech all of you who have expressed extreme displeasure in regards to the bombing of Afghanistan, claiming that these sociopaths somehow were justified in attacking us due to certain foreign policy decision: Are there any arguments now?

What other justification do you need to hop on board this cause?

Some have claimed that they don’t want their kids to inherit and fight in this difficult war on terrorism. Well, do you want your kids to grow up in a place where the air that they breathe has been turned into a weapon?

Some have claimed that we instead need to debate and rethink our “evil foreign policy.” And while certainly that needs to be done, are you going to sit back and debate tit for tat while your country burns and your fellow countryman’s lungs and bodies burn because of chemical toxins?

So what will it take? You who sit and beg for peace when the people who are attacking us will not have peace?

As said in this column before, the people who are denying that our sovereign country has the moral right to take down the terrorists because of supposed evil that our country has committed over the years, have what can only be described as a severe hatred for America. And if you think this is a radical conclusion, ask yourself this: who else would watch a heinous attack on the country where they live, observe 5,000 of their fellow Americans die and then imply that we had this action coming and demand that their country not do anything about it?

The anti-war on terrorists movement is a movement ripe with hypocrisy.

Most of those who are holding peace demonstrations have been associated with other causes such as protesting the World Trade Organization, claiming that American business is oppressing millions all around the world in the name of greed.

Yet, without blinking an eye they will not support our bombing against the Taliban, an organization that oppresses those that do not agree with their interpretation of Islam and forces non-Muslims to wear special types of identification.

Many of those who protest have been full supporters of women’s rights. Yet in their haste to criticize this country, they do not mention that the leadership of the country we are taking aim at severely represses their women.

But if you are a woman in Afghanistan, you cannot be seen in public without a male from your immediate family accompanying you. You are required to wear a full length burqa at all times, and if your ankle accidentally shows in public, you can be publically stoned to death. You cannot wear fingernail polish or the tips of your fingers are chopped off.

You cannot be educated. You cannot have a job. You are not entitled to medical coverage.

Do you who protest our actions and claim it was our fault for what happened on that fateful September morning hate this country so much as not to mind that we are being attacked by groups whose values are similar to those who are in charge of Afghanistan?

Most of those who claim they want peace balk whenever there is any mention of school prayer or having a manger scene on city property at Christmastime in the name of the separation of church and state.

But there is no question of separating church and state under the Taliban. A radical and unfounded view of Islam prevails, and those that do not agree are discriminated against and killed.

As Americans, we should do whatever we can to enforce the ideals that make this country great. We should be steadfast in our pursuit of equal rights for women and minorities. We should provide an environment where our citizens can partake of whatever religion they choose.

But you who protest inadvertently are advocating letting our country and our values succumb to attacks by those who do not hold those values dear, all in the name of supposed “evil” actions by our country.

You are acting like hypocrites.

If your ideological stances were unwavering, then surely you would stand in the foreground supporting our actions against the ghastly regime of the Taliban. Surely you would put whatever differences you had with our nation in order to fight the forces of repression. Why haven’t you come forward in outlining the evils of al-Queda or the Taliban?

You who have written me the past couple of weeks have claimed that I have misrepresented what you believe. But in every case, you who have written have said nothing of the Afghanistan violations of human rights. Only American ones.

And that is a bigger crime then anything our nation has supposedly done to others.