I AM no great fan of Michael Moore and I do feel a certain degree of schadenfreude in seeing him look a little less self-satisfied, I cannot say that I entirely share Stephen Dalby's jubilant tone, (or should that be jubilant "Tone"?), at the re-election of George W Bush (Letters, November 5).

I am not a "US-hater" nor do I consider myself to be "Iraq obsessed", but I am genuinely very concerned about the current aggressive US foreign policy and what, taken to its logical conclusion, it may mean for the rest of the world.

I am particularly worried that Mr Blair is so unquestioningly following the same policy. I fear that the paranoid politics of hate, division and fear will lead to ever more conflict in the world.

The world will be an infinitely less secure place for everyone and certainly not a safer place for US citizens as Mr Bush intends.

I deplore Tony Blair for taking us into this action against Iraq. It is disgusting that people have died for nothing more than to improve Tony Blair's standing as an international statesman.

He lightly grins off news of British casualties and kidnappings such as that of aid-worker Margaret Hassan, someone who is actually doing some good in the world, because being in Iraq makes Britain look like a "force to be reckoned with".

But I also deplore those Labour backbenchers and especially the Conservatives who voted to allow Mr Blair to prosecute this war and then bleated that they had been lied to. This always was the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

Richard Greaves,

Morehall Close,

York.

Updated: 11:40 Tuesday, November 09, 2004