Madam, - As an American who has lived on this island for a decade I was delighted and surprised by the letter from Dale Ludwig headed "US perspectives on world news" (August 7th).
It accurately reflected what I have observed in The Irish Times and some European media - a refreshing and informing ability to report the news without editorial bias.
The objections of Arthur Heimbold (August 11th) sharply brought to light the value of that reporting. While I have no doubt that Mr Heimbold considers his opinion informed and relevant he follows the time-honoured tactic of the self appointed "right" by denigrating and belittling his countrymen.
I would remind him that while liberal values "soiled" the US the country participated in defeating fascism, ended a depression and had an economic boom still unrivalled. Americans went to the moon and sponsored such "liberal" follies as the Peace Corps and the Head Start education programme for pre-school children. Oh, and let us not forget what that "low life" Bill Clinton did: he balanced the US budget and assisted in a major shift in the Irish "war on terror".
Conservative elements in the US have resisted every forward-looking programme in the country's history from emancipation for slaves in the 19th century to civil rights for their descendents in the 20th.
Today's conservatives have squandered the world's post-9/11 compassion for the US, destabilised the Middle East through ill-informed ideology and hubristic myopia, and stifled debate both in America and abroad with finger-pointing and name-calling.
Mr Heimbold has a right, as we all do, to express himself. But it seems that all he has to offer - in what is really an important discussion on the way America reflects itself, reports on itself and the world and uses the country's strength at home and abroad - is chest-thumping rhetoric. And I suggest Mr Heimbold throwing mud at his own people is counter-productive in the extreme. - Yours, etc,
MARC GUERNON, Athy, Co Kildare.