Ex-President Carter has been and will continue to be widely criticized for meeting with Hamas recently. What harm can he do? The U.S. government cannot simply ignore Hamas and hope it changes its ways.

Shooting rockets into Israel disturbs the fragile tranquility and creates chaos in an already volatile region of the world. The free world cannot sit back and allow this kind of action to get out of control.

President Bush says he will not sit down and talk to such an unreasonable group. I applaud Carter and his actions. It might not help, but at least he's trying, which is more than I can say for our current president and his administration.

Amos Lee Capps Jr.

Warrenton