Sir, - The revulsion caused by the appalling attacks against innocent people in the US calls for action. Yet we all know that answering violence with more violence is not the solution.
As mentioned in your columns (Paul Gillespie, World View, September 1st and Denis Staunton, European Diary, September 11th) ECOFIN, the European Council of Finance Ministers, is to discuss this week the possible implementation of the Tobin Tax, a currency transaction tax proposed by the American Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin.
Apart from having the potential to curb speculative movements of capital and to raise funds for development, such a tax - if it was combined with a concerted action against tax havens - would help follow the trail of hot money, often the proceeds of crime, which finances international terrorism.
Citizens around the world should call on their governments for a co-ordinated implementation of the Tobin tax. At a time like this, it is true that we need international solidarity, but NATO countries should certainly consider this measure as a far more effective and less dangerous response than armed retaliation to the threat which faces us all. - Yours, etc.,
Claudine Gaidoni, Ailesbury Grove, Dundrum, Dublin 16.