THE recent bombings in London and the support shown for this carnage by a group of disgruntled Muslims brought to mind a slogan I used to see everywhere, from car bumpers to T-shirts, when I lived in Australia many years ago: “Australia — love it or leave it!” And before readers write in to accuse me of racism, I’d like to make it perfectly clear that I am not a racist. I spent many years travelling the world and I have friends of all colours, creeds and nationalities.

I can fully empathise with the Palestinians, who are suffering appalling treatment at the hands of the (American-backed) Israelis; I can sympathise with anyone who detests the “Yankification” of this world — but please let them not take out their revenge on the innocent British public — most of whom have no time for George W Bush, or his gung-ho predecessors or our spineless leaders.

D MacGregor
Ramsgate, Kent

WRONGS AND RIGHTS: Janet Daley has encapsulated the sentiments of a majority of westerners (A small victory for the men who love death, Comment, last week). In many of the responses after the bombings the denunciations of terror were followed by caveats claiming our ultimate responsibility for these psychopathic killers.

Like most in western-style democracies I have many disagreements with the governments I have had to endure. I too am of the opinion that George W Bush is a war criminal, but the beauty of our society is the ability to voice dissent without fear of recrimination.

The British have large Muslim refugee population from countries that only offered them misery. It is time our politicians put a price on the freedom our society provides to refugees from wherever.

Darrell Greco Singel
Amsterdam

ANOTHER VIEW: If we are to “recall history accurately” as Michael Portillo suggests (Comment, last week), we could start with some of our actions that have no small bearing on Islamic terrorism and its causes.

Our first experience of such terror was not two weeks ago, on 9/11 or in 1993. We first became acquainted with Islamic fighters in 1979. The West began creating what President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, described as the “Afghan trap”, whereby we organised and trained 200,000 mujaheddin fighters to expel the “infidels” and submit Afghanistan to extreme violence and terror while looking the other way.

Later, we supported Saddam Hussein (more after he gassed the Kurds, less so after he invaded Kuwait), and the sanctions clearly helped him stay in power.

Portillo states that America kept forces in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait “with the agreement of those governments”. This really should read “with the agreement of those vile dictatorships that support terrorism and behead anyone who disagrees with them”. And we should not make the mistake that the people there support the troops stationed in their countries.

James Curry
London E11

A RISKY STRATEGY: The shooting dead of an innocent person in London has predictably raised howls of accusations. It was an unhappy incident but I would praise the officer for his selfless behaviour. If, as he believed, he was chasing a suicide bomber, he put his own life at risk. Imagine the outcry if the police had failed to apprehend the suspect and scores of people were killed.

Those same do-gooders would have been among the first to accuse the authorities of incompetence, and would have called for heads to roll.

Walter Allwright
Dublin

IN THE DOCK: I trust the officer responsible for the Stockwell shooting will be prosecuted through the courts by Lord Goldsmith in the same vein as British soldiers in Iraq.

Our servicemen and women abroad have to make the same snap choices without the rigorous training the Met receives.

Chris Alcock
Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire

WHAT IF? If an Englishman had been shot dead in Brazil, we would have called them trigger-happy, panicked and overreacting.

Jeff Green
London SW19