N G CHARNLEY'S contribution, "I salute this brave man", to your letters of October 18 leaves one so depressed. Here we are in the middle of a reaction to the terrible events of September 11, the end point of which is unknown but already has cost thousands of jobs (and which may well be the least important consequence) and all that can be said is to hark on about the Second World War and pounds and ounces.

Val Cowell's inevitable contribution in an earlier edition continues the theme of almost pathological hatred of all things European.

I would understand it better if the fierce protection by the political Right of Britain's so-called "independence" extended to the take-over of our country by all things American. But no. It is only Europe that is the threat. At least we will get a referendum on further European matters. We have no such choice over becoming the de facto 51st State of the Union.

Meanwhile our Prime Minister, whom Coun Simon Renwick (letters, Oct 4) astonishingly sees as some kind of Socialist, whereas most of my acquaintances see him as faintly to the right of Thatcher, goes charging off to lick George W's boots and drag us into his war. Of course, something has to be done about terrorism but increasing the misery of the already profoundly miserable people of that unhappy country by air bombardment is surely not the way.

If the objective was to replace the evil Taliban with a truly Muslim regime, supported by all major Muslim states and teachers, then maybe there would be some point to it. But as far as I read what Washington (and thus inevitably London) is saying, that is specifically NOT the objective.

I am not anti-American but I find it disturbing that the anti-Europe, hark back to the war protagonists, allow Blair to get away with his nonsense about the USA coming to our rescue in the world wars when of course they did not do so until their own interests were attacked.

For years the US Government indulged in masterly inactivity over support for the IRA within the USA. It has supported Israel, with only gentle protest against Israel's flouting of UN resolutions and its wholly disproportionate response to the Palestines. Can one imagine what the US would have said if the British army had blown up the Divis flats in Northern Ireland some 25 years ago as a response to sniper fire from the IRA? But Israel can be that disproportionate and gets at worst a mild rebuke and Yassar Arafat is told by Blair to stop the violence.

I do not find the world better for a creed which sees it as a right for the rich and powerful to become even richer and more powerful, often regardless of their performance. There is not a shed of economic evidence that the so-called "trickle down" effect is operating on behalf of the poor from this creed. Indeed, one might see the sources of some terrorism in this issue.

This is not to justify the actions of terrorists, nor to downgrade the horror of September 11. What we have to realise is that it is "unfettered extremism" that is the enemy of ordinary people. This applied whether this extremism is communism, capitalism, religion or anything else. And it is always the ordinary people, in the Gulags, in Nazi Germany, in the twin towers and in Afghanistan, who are the victims.

M J Turner,

Lightburne Ave,

St Annes.