Madam, - I am a US citizen living in Ireland. I did not vote for George W. Bush, nor do I agree with all of the policies of his administration.
Nevertheless, I feel compelled to defend the president against the outrageous psychological analysis provided by Oliver James (The Irish Times, September 16th).
I am reasonably certain that Mr James has never had Mr Bush "on the couch." Instead, he has cobbled together his profile from a highly selective list of old quotes concerning Mr Bush's early life, flavoured it with his own strong feelings about fundamentalist Christianity, and sprinkled it with more selected quotes from the speech-writer David Frum.
Should you wish to read Mr Frum's comments in their original context, I refer you to his book The Right Man, in which the author (incidentally the writer who coined the "axis of evil" phrase) concludes that Mr Bush is the right man for the job.
On moving to Ireland almost 14 years ago, I realised right away that the United States and its citizens were fair game. I accepted that, no matter how much it might disturb me personally, in the spirit of free speech we should all be allowed to air our opinions of each other. However, I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the tone these opinions are assuming.
I have to say I am disappointed that The Irish Times would present material such as Mr James's, in which the president is portrayed as a psychotic madman bent on taking over the world, as a piece of serious commentary. But given that the offensive letter in the same edition from Mr Kieran McCarthy is also deemed clever enough for publication, I suppose I should not be surprised. - Yours, etc.,
CORNELIA SEXTON,
Hazelwood,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.