Mr. Friedman, could I ask you a question?

Mr. Friedman, I often revisit your words of praise for the Bush administration’s “willingness to restore our deterrence.” You wrote:

No, the axis-of-evil idea isn’t thought through — but that’s what I like about it. It says to these countries and their terrorist pals: “We know what you’re cooking in your bathtubs. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do about it, but if you think we are going to just sit back and take another dose from you, you’re wrong. Meet Don Rumsfeld — he’s even crazier than you are.”

But now, I wonder: would deterrence have worked better if it’d been more like you?

- Chantal, New York