I am writing in response to Theodore H. Loy's letter ("West not prepared for impact of radical Islam," YourViews, May 23).

Mr. Loy laments that, while Arab children are spoon-fed hateful anti-American propaganda, our children are taught tolerance, thus leaving us, in his words, "ill-prepared for what's in store for us."

I would kindly suggest that Mr. Loy's logic needs to be turned right-side up by asking him the following:

Do the Arab nations occupy our cities with troops in the hundreds of thousands? Do Iraqi battleships patrol our waterways? Do their fighter planes dominate our skies?

Are Muslims actively seeking to control our natural resources? Have they imposed regime change in the United States, damning the consequences?

I am not apologizing for anti-American or anti-Israeli propaganda, although the degree to which alarmists overestimate its pervasiveness in Muslim societies should also be described as propaganda, especially since our propaganda is backed up by the world's most deadly military.

I would simply like to point out that Mr. Loy and others quick to argue that we need to step up the so-called "clash of civilizations" need to think about the larger context.

If Muslim Web sites encourage hatred of the United States and Israel, perhaps it's because such sentiments resonate in occupied societies. Although I don't condone their propaganda, theirs makes much more sense to me than ours.

Andrew Hartman

Bloomington

Do you agree?