Sir

In your Opinion article “Anti-terrorist agendas” (Nature 413, 655; 2001) you seem to have swallowed whole the assumptions about a new 'war' promoted by the Bush administration. You discuss how the science community may assist its governments in what I consider a false war.

Your article states: “In times of war, modern governments require a special relationship with their best scientists and engineers — a relationship which now needs to be recast.”

But to have a war there has to be an adversary much more specific and less elusive than the terrorists whom the administration is condemning. In my view the so-called “war” is really an open-ended mobilization for the self-interests of the Bush administration: increased support for the military, increased presence in south-west Asia, decreased civil rights, decreased social spending, muzzling of opposition and blanketing of information.

It is unfortunate that, to promote science, Nature believes that we must accede to the politics of an uncivil society. The charge that science and militarism go hand in hand seems here to be borne out. This will only harm science in the long run.