I feel as though I am being lied to, fundamentally. I watched with horror as the events unfurled on September 11. A friend worked in the 2nd tower and I felt a personal involvement. He was OK and is still working in New York. The huge anger and sympathy for the US after the event was perhaps your greatest ally. It moved even cynical Middle East leaders to mourn for your citizens and the other nationals killed and injured that day. However, the response has destroyed any of that sentiment. The very thing we aimed to combat is now strengthened - and for what? For political manipulation.

History will judge the peoples and politicians involved in our current times. I doubt very many will be left with great stature or esteem. A huge human tragedy with the potential to reach out for partners to overcome an evil has been met with opportunistic manipulation by politicians and their business/organisational interests.

They are not truly concerned with us but with their own agenda. Witness Iraq. Regime change was always a political issue for the current administration and the ability to shoehorn it into the anti-terrorist tray allowed it to take on some form of urgency. Saddams regime could have been neutered and removed without the horrendous damage to the World and UN community it has left behind it.

I personally now do not want to travel to the US - I feel that it is now a dangerous place. Not simply because of the Sept 11 attacks but because the current regime is almost challenging people to a fight like some Wild West macho gunslinger. And as a foreign resident - who is concerned for my liberties in your country - imagine how US residents would feel if we said we were secretly going to arrest you if you travelled to London - and have to provide no reason why we did it?