I am extremely concerned by the implications of recent statements made by the US government regarding the potential extension of its "war on terrorism" to the unilaterally identified "axis of evil" and the failure of the British government, unlike its French and German counterparts, to distance itself from these policies and openly criticise them.

Although the events of September 11 were horrendous, it is quite clear that, following the defeat of the Taliban, the US is now simply using the atrocity as an excuse to extend its military, economic and cultural dominance.

I am not denying there are serious problems of global proportions that need addressing and that it is the responsibility of every nation to try to solve them.

However, it is my firm belief that the selfish actions of an increasingly insular and narrow-minded superpower are more their cause than the solutions to them.

Crippling third-world debt, exploitative practices that increasingly widen the gap between rich and poor and exacerbate environmental degradation and the imposition of Western systems on to populations who neither want nor need them can only create further conflict.

-Jonny Phillips, Waterloo Street, Hove