Response To Terrorist Attacks

Sir, - Messrs Timothy O'Connor and Leonard Craig (October 19th) admonish us for daring to voice any opinion that is even remotely…

Sir, - Messrs Timothy O'Connor and Leonard Craig (October 19th) admonish us for daring to voice any opinion that is even remotely critical of the United Sates. But then, as this is in line with Miss Condoleezza Rice's dictum that "you are either with us or against us", one shouldn't expect otherwise. It simply illustrates the microscopic introspection and oceanic insensibility that is part of the American psyche.

I was just as numbed as any human being at the unfolding events of September 11th and even went along with our Government's over-the-top national day of mourning. What it didn't mean was a sellout of my national and European identity.

It would be well for those on the other side of the Atlantic to remember that for many of us here the line "closer to Boston than Berlin" doesn't apply. They would do well also to remember W.C. Fields's maxim that my country right or wrong ranks about the same as my mother dunk or sober. - Yours, etc.,

Desmond Graham, Collins Avenue East, Dublin 5.