Don't pick on our leaders. .

Patrick McCormick's December Culture in Context column ("A gangster nation") unfairly maligns the United States and its leaders as the world's bully.

In the article; President Bush's scrapping of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in favor of missile defense is described as one of Bush's bully moments. As a Christian, I am pleased that Bush is pulling back from the former doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which is about as immoral a policy as I ever heard of, and adopting a defensive posture. The ABM treaty terms allowed for withdrawal upon six months' notice, which the U.S. gave.

McCormick accuses the White House of hunting down an undefined list of rogue nations. Any person who reads the news knows that the rogue nations were clearly defined: Libya, Iraq, and North Korea among others. This sounds to me like truth-telling, not bullying.

McCormick bemoans the U.S. "taking charge" where others equivocate, but with strength comes a moral responsibility to use that strength to address international evils like Al Qaeda and Saddam, especially when no other nation has the strength or the will to do so.

Finally, McCormick would have us defer to the rule of international law, instead of the U.S. Constitution. I would prefer to trust the U.S. Constitution over the often corrupt, venal, and self-serving rules that the U.N. enforces on other countries every day.

R. Patrick Henry Jr.
Longmeadow, Mass.