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'It will take decades before the US’s former friends feel able to trust the nation again'
Donald Trump’s latest excuse (it changes from day to day) for launching his Putinesque ‘massive operation’ against Iran is that ‘if we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would have had a nuclear weapon’ and ‘when crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen’.
Really? The US has nuclear weapons and, frankly, there are no crazier people than those in charge in Washington right now. And nothing demonstrates just how detached from reality the US president and his stooges are, when they (press secretary Karoline Leavitt, secretary of war Pete Hegseth, house speaker Mike Johnson et al) include references to their European ‘allies’ when commenting on the illegal war against Iran. They have none.
They have alienated all their friends, including Canada and Australia and much of the rest of the civilised world.
The only ‘allies’ the US really has are autocratic regimes such as Russia and Belarus. Once Trump and his gang of neo-Nazi thugs have been consigned to history, it will take decades before the US’s former friends feel able to trust and rely on the nation again – if ever. Bob Readman, Sevenoak
Is Starmer ‘weak’?
Another huge mistake by Sir Keir Starmer. He infuriated Donald Trump by initially refusing to allow the US to use UK air bases for its attacks on Iran. We are so very weak with our depleted forces and Navy – can we really afford to lose the friendship of the president of the US? We also now discover it was cabinet members Ed Miliband, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves who were behind our blocking of the US using our bases. Does our prime minister have any idea of the role he should be playing?
I find myself agreeing with opposition leader Kemi Badenoch at PMQs – he’s ‘weak, weak, weak’. Molly Neville, Sheffield
Trump shows ‘contempt of international law’
In the light of its sinking of an Iranian vessel in international waters (Metro, Thu) there can now be no doubt that the US should be considered a pariah nation.
This, of course, is not just on the basis of what they have done but also on what leading members of the Trump administration have said, which betrays a palpable contempt for all the canons of international law. The Rev Andrew McLuskey, Middlesex
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‘Starmer is right to distance himself from attacks in the Middle East’
Starmer is right to distance himself from the attacks in the Middle East.
The Great Orange One can’t seem to remember why he bombed Iran – perhaps he confused it with Iraq? Or the Chagos Islands, wherever and whatever that is.
Starmer at least remembers the debacle of Iraq in 2003, when we blindly shackled ourselves to the US. Let’s keep out of the growing conflagration for as long as we can. Sylvie Orp, via email
Are insults ‘bog standard’ with Trump?
Starmer won’t lose much sleep over Trump saying he’s ‘no Churchill’ (Metro, Wed). Insults are bog standard with Trump. He previously insulted the memory of those British troops who died serving alongside US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The less Britain has to do with America’s wars the better. Roger Backhouse, York
Some descriptors for Trump
Churchill had his ‘V’ sign, the guy in the White House scores five Vs – vain, vindictive, venal, vicious and vulgar. Graeme, Glasgow
