MARY Wreghitt's letter ('American excess', May 31) had argued that the US profiteered from arms deals in the early days of the Second World War, was then caught napping at Pearl Harbour and now contributes more than its fair share to global warming.

Solid, debatable points.

It's a pity Ms Hanna's broadside response ('Our sin is success', June 4) ignored all those and merely exhorted us to emulate American success as she perceived it.

I suggest she reads New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd's recent essay. This is an excellent report of the grab-all attitude of US society.

She writes: "We want big. We want fast. We want far. We want now..."

To me, it shows that thinking US citizens share the same worries as many Europeans about the direction modern American society is taking.

I would not like to copy the US 'successful' lifestyle of liberty and the pursuit of happiness if the former is dependent on having to carry a hand-gun and the latter is too often seen to be made in vain.

Annie Wright,

Love Lane, Birmingham.

...I READ with interest your letter from Marlene Hanna about the success of Americans. I have visited the US several times in my career and find the country and the people (at least the ones I met) to be wonderful.

However, I always had nagging doubts in the back of my mind: what if I wasn't white, young and healthy? What if I didn't want to drive a car and become fat?

Europe has a far better track record in the area of public services, particularly for the elderly and the sick.

Britain's only failing is to be lagging behind the rest of Europe in public infrastructure improvement.

The main reason for this was the inward looking views of the Thatcher/Major administrations where any public enterprise was deemed bad.

They created Railtrack.

While the rest of the letter is taken in good part, I must object most strongly to the statement that Britain 'failed' in the Second World War.

If it had, I would be writing this letter in German. My father spent six years of his life removing the Nazis from North Africa and Italy and got very little help from the Americans apart from being accidentally bombed by US aircraft which were, apparently, lost and attacked the wrong side.

Steve Hewitt

Hastings Close,

Clifton, York.

Updated: 11:45 Saturday, June 09, 2001