OF ALL the myths and mysteries that surround the murder of Osama bin Laden, one of the most perplexing is why the US would want him dead.

The Taliban government of Afghanistan offered to give up bin Laden and the whole of the organisation supposedly serving him in 2001, after the demolition of the Trade Towers.

George W Bush and his puppeteers chose to decline this offer and opted for the ludicrously misnamed “War On Terror”. For the next five or six years, they used images of bin Laden to promote fear and patriotism.

Less mysterious but more indicative of the way the US subdues those running at its heels is the silence of the western media on the subject of the illegal raid into Pakistan to commit this murder.

That the US bombs civilian targets in Pakistan almost every day seems to make six more murders an acceptable aspect of US foreign policy to the half-made men and women of the BBC.

There is no evidence of bin Laden’s involvement in the collapse of the Trade Towers. That he sought credit for planning the flights is understandable.

R Westmoreland, The Oval, Pocklington. • WE SEE politicians and people on the street cheering and clapping at the death of Osama bin Laden, who without a doubt was responsible by his actions and the actions of his followers for the death of thousands of innocent men, women and children world wide.

Will the people of the world cheer as loudly should a similar fate be meted out to Tony Blair or George Bush?

For they are both jointly responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children, as well as their service personnel, due to their illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Or does the double standard come into being by saying we were imposing our so-called democracy on the downtrodden people of these societies to let them lead a better life? In reality, it has not worked and the countries are in a far worse state now than before they were invaded as no exit strategy was planned.

TJ Ryder, Priory Gardens, North Lane, Dringhouses, York