In his column "Don't forget: Freedom remains in great peril" (Opinion Exchange, Dec. 22), Clifford D. May praises George W. Bush's struggles to keep our country free by fighting the terrorists on their own ground and by not allowing the Geneva Conventions to limit our country's options against the terrorists. However, he overlooks a couple of severe threats to our nation's freedom that President Bush has ignored and even exacerbated. One threat is that the American public becomes so terrified and frightened that we voluntarily give up our freedoms to a power that promises to protect us. Throughout history people have relinquished freedom to rulers for the protection the rulers can provide against marauders and other threats. Some freedoms must be relinquished for a civilized society to function; we give up the freedom to drive however we want, for example, so that everyone can use the roads safely. However, Americans have always valued personal privacy, and the Bush administration has eroded this and other freedoms in the name of protecting us from terrorism. Another threat is that the terrorists can make the battle against them so expensive that it will undermine our nation's economy. This is essentially how the United States prevailed over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and the Bush administration has brought our economy to a seriously precarious condition. May scoffs at people who believe that the terrorist organizations could not militarily defeat the United States and praises the Bush administration's military and intelligence-gathering efforts against them. However, the Bush administration's approaches may be eroding both our personal freedoms and our nation's strength. JAMES PLAHUTA, GRAND MARAIS, MINN.