Attitudes to America

Madam, - Colum McCann seeks to give his anti-American rant some integrity by informing us that the United States is a country…

Madam, - Colum McCann seeks to give his anti-American rant some integrity by informing us that the United States is a country in which he lives "as a father, a foreign-born patriot, an admirer, a protester" (Opinion & Analysis, March 6th).

He precedes that attempt at justification by telling us that the US is "the country that claims to embrace the best of all humanity [ and] uses the worst of all human means to humiliate not only its enemies, but also itself."

Mr McCann attacks the United States for its "abuse" of freedom and democracy. In my view, his article is so viciously juvenile that it does not deserve a detailed response. Suffice to say that if it were not for the freedom and democracy of the US and the rest of Western civilisation, he would not be able even to hold his cycloptic views, let alone have them published. - Yours, etc,

EAMONN GAVIN, Terenure, Dublin 6w.