Sir, - Eddie Naughton (November 10th) should realise that the new closeness of the United States to Russia, and the concomitant overlooking of its brutal war against Chechnya, is precisely the reason we have to be sceptical about American war aims. The charge of anti-Americanism has more to do with American exceptionalism, its image of itself as whiter than white, than with anything of substance.
If we criticise the United Kingdom for its policy on, say, Sellafield, no-one talks about anti-Britishness, do they? Mr Naughton should realise also that there is a difference between a state and a government (which is making war on Afghanistan), and a culture and a people (which contains probably more shades of opinion than exist here in Ireland). To criticise the policy of a government is, and must be, separable from insulting a nation. - Yours, etc.,
Conor McCarthy, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.