Sir, - We are writing to express our discomfort with the Government decision to have a national day of mourning for the disaster in New York. Would it not have been more appropriate to have a national day of mourning for all victims of terrorist attacks?
George W. Bush spoke of justice in terms of "retaliation" against the countries who might harbour these terrorists. Are we going to have another day of mourning for the innocent victims - "collateral damage" - of an act of war against another nation, or is America above reproach in the international scene?
Our sympathies are very much with the families of the victims, but what makes American lives more valuable than those lives lost in Omagh, Rwanda, Chechnya or Palestine?
Is it because so many of our diaspora are based in America, or is it perhaps that we believe that West is best? - Yours, etc.,
Elaine and Julie-Ann Lyons, Grantham Street, Dublin 8.