JUDGING by the profusion of letters from just one USA citizen in the letters columns of July 29, August 9, 13 and 27, the Bolton Evening news might as well go the whole hog, and call itself the "Voice of America".
Britain is a country which allows the Pentagon to interfere in the everyday running of our Air Force, and to place military security installations upon our green and pleasant land, so no one should be surprised that the principle of good old British justice "Innocent until proved guilty" has been replaced with "Guilty because I am mighty, and I am therefore right" and that our Prime Minister should be the lapdog of the Bushes and Berlusconis of this world.
What a contortion of logic some of your readers perform, when they decide that because a person allegedly carries out an act of terrorism (murder) with hate in his heart, and in the full knowledge that innocent people will die, that they should not be subjected to the full process of law!
The bluster and bully-boy swagger of those who itch for a fight, and the taunts of "Do gooder" and "loser", seem to increase in equal proportion to their inability to justify why the rules of international law and justice should not be applied with full rigour in both spirit and letter, to all individuals and all nations, including Britain and America.
It is a sad reflection on the state of our society that in these columns, personal abuse and ridicule should be heaped upon those who commit no greater offence than to strive for peace and justice for all people, regardless of who they are or where they come from.
An ample illustration of the of the lynch mob mentality, and of the fact that comparisons are extremely odious, has been provided by a reader who attempted to use the tragic deaths of two little innocents in Britain, in order to justify the incarceration without trial, and the torture of alleged terrorists.
If demanding that all wrong-doers are brought to justice, that innocent people should not be bombed, and that the rich nations stop inflicting what is no less than economic terrorism upon poor nations, should class one -- in the words of another reader -- as an "extremist", then I for one am happy to be known as such.
William Kelly
Darley Street
Farnworth
Bolton
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