THE stance that the American administration is determined to take over Iraq is making it very difficult for its allies in Nato and the United Nations to support.

Senior figures in the administration, when pushed, are still not prepared to deny that they will continue with their stated aim of "regime change" in Iraq even if unrestricted access for UN weapons inspectors is allowed.

The Iraqi government has, following strong pressure from the international community, agreed to allow UN inspectors back into the country.

Let us not forget, though, that it was the Americans in the first place who were forced to admit that the last time inspectors were in Iraq they were using one of them as an agent to gather intelligence.

Also, bear in mind when it is stated that the majority of the population in Iraq do not want Saddam as their president, that the current American administration has a very shaky foundation as far as its legitimacy is concerned.

Do I not remember that a couple of years ago that the world was watching news bulletins by the hour as furious litigation was going on over whether or not extra time was to be allowed for the counting of ballot papers which had not been completely perforated when votes were cast?

The Americans and their allies must follow international law.

I agree that everything possible has to be done to curb Saddam, however there can be no justification for breaking international law and conventions which will set dangerous precedents for future incursions into sovereign territories. - Peter S Craig, Darlington.

WE have recently watched both Gerald Kaufman's and John Pilger's programmes on Palestine.

We wish to register our strong condemnation of the policies Israel is using against the Palestinians.

The state of Israel and the plight of the Palestinians were created by colonialist double-dealing, with the UK a major player.

The Labour Government is certainly not doing all it can to preserve the peace in the Middle East. The US has a poor record on human rights and we object to the high moral tone employed by George Bush and Tony Blair. - Colin and Christine Downes-Grainger, Redcar.

EUROPE

AT last, the penny has finally dropped. The European Union is no jolly group of self-governing states; it was never meant to be.

The 'ever closer union' clause in the original Treaty of Rome, which most people never noticed anyway, always meant that the individual countries of the continent would end up as one country called Europe.

Britain must get out of this undemocratic prison now or face war later.

Our own politicians are either duplicitous or very naive. Whichever it is, the end result will be the same - the surrender of a great nation.

What they are doing does not and never has had the consent of the people, not only here, but right across the European Union.

Remember, our politicians are merely the custodians of our democracy. It was never theirs to give away. - Neil Herron, Sunderland.

JACK Straw welcomes enthusiastically the proposal by the EU for a European constitution.

A single constitution would effectively remove the illusion of the EU being an association of free, independent (democratically-elected) nation states and transform it into the single superstate always intended. National governments will become redundant, having been usurped by an unelected, unaccountable, intrusive, bullying bureaucracy. Democracy will be dead.

Written into the original Treaty of Rome were the words 'ever closer union'. It is this maxim that has driven the federalist agenda through successive treaties, which have seen the incremental removal of powers from nation states and the increased powers of the executive in Brussels. This relentless 'one way traffic' has reduced our powers to that of a parish council, rather than those of the fourth largest economy in the world. - Dave Pascoe, Press Secretary, UK Independence Party, Hartlepool Branch.

WAR ON TERRORISM

IF George Bush believes so strongly in fighting terrorism perhaps he should set the example by deporting those Irish Republican and Loyalist terrorists who, after escaping justice in Britian, are currently enjoying the legal protection of the US.

Perhaps George Bush could also take action against those Americans who fund terrorist groups. - CT Riley, Spennymoor.

CHRISTIANITY

No wonder Peter Mullen has cancelled his subscription to Theology Magazine (Echo, Sept 17). He is not the only one fed up with articles, interviews, even sometimes sermons that downgrade the gospel to a mish-mash of irrelevancies.

There is so much spiritual blindness in our country today, as Mr Mullen says, blindness caused by people deliberately ignoring what the gospel says as much as by ignorance. The ignorance is not helped by articles such as the one referred to.

The self-inflicted spiritual blindness largely stems from society's attitude of 'no one is going to tell me what to do with my life'.

Then there's blindness caused by poor presentation of what Christianity is really about; a diet of watered down milk rather than the strong meat of the gospel. Perhaps it is just too strong for many people today.

Spiritual blindness as a description does not discriminate against blind people, as Professor Hull suggested in the article that so enraged Mr Mullen. What it does is condemn those who chose to ignore God. - EA Moralee, Billingham.