JUDITH GOLDBERGER,
Sir, - Niall O'Dowd criticises the view held by many "anti-American" Irish people that there is widespread support in America for an invasion of Iraq as a misperception (Opinion, September 10th).
How odd, then, that a poll in California on the same day showed that nearly 60 per cent of the population of that laid-back and liberal US state supported such an attack.
President Bush declared on the anniversary of September 11th, with a fist clenched for emphasis, that "as long as terrorists and dictators plot against our lives and our liberty, they will be opposed by the United States Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and Marines".
Mr O'Dowd would serve the cause of understanding better if he examined how the US squandered the goodwill felt towards it after September 11th last year, and what kind of a President it takes to misrepresent such heartfelt global feelings as being a carte blanche for repression and violence under the pretext of a search for justice. - Yours etc.,
JUDITH GOLDBERGER,
Redwood City,
California,
USA.
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Sir, - Niall O' Dowd argues, with the help of statistics from polls in the US, that a rather large percentage of people in that country oppose military action against Iraq.
Might I suggest that if there were comparable statistics about whom the Irish people blame for the aggressive stance the US is taking on Iraq, he might find that a rather large percentage of people in Ireland would lay the blame with the leadership, not the ordinary citizens, of the US. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL HIGGINS,
Battery Road,
Longford.
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A chara, - Why has Europe become so anti-American? Well, for a start, the last Presidential election involved the wrongful disenfranchisement of thousands of Democratic voters by a Republican official (who was also co-chair of the Bush election committee), leading to a series of recounts which were stopped only by the partisan judgment of a Supreme Court stacked with Republican nominees, resulting in the "election" of the candidate with the lesser number of popular votes.
Half the cabinet he then appointed (including himself and his vice-president) are recently retired CEOs of large companies being investigated for business scandals. His attorney-general, John Ashcroft. . .say no more. His disgracefully anti-Palestinian Middle East policy is dictated solely by his need to keep Israel as a close ally in the region. His policy on Iraq is dictated entirely, as before, by an American desire to gain control of oil supplies in the region (as well getting revenge for Daddy last time round).
His response to the awful tragedy of September 11th was to send in his troops to bomb, kill and maim thousands of innocent Afghans in a bloody act of revenge for the attack - and still some people express shock at his decision to veto the International Criminal Court (among other international accords and treaties), to ensure that American (yes, only American) troops will be exempt from trial for war crimes.
And despite all this, the American media fails to report the truth and the American people fail to look beyond their shores, instead returning massive approval ratings for Dubya, who, it is rumoured cannot even spell that far in the alphabet. Europeans, thank God, have intelligence, objectivity, a free media, democracy and a strong sense of right and wrong. I can genuinely say I have never been so proud to be a European.
Mary Harney can keep Boston - I'll vote Berlin any time! - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL,
Castle Gate,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - George W. Bush is the "threat to civilisation". - Yours, etc.,
KEITH NOLAN ,
Bulloch Harbour,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.