First, let it be clear to all that "Americanism" relates only to the language, nothing else. According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1999), Americanism means "a word or phrase used in American English but not in standard English in Britain." Therefore, using "Americanism" or "Anti-Americanism" to symbolise political inclination or disinclination towards the USA is simply a misnomer.

Secondly, and most pertinently, before passing a sweeping remark against the readers of The Daily Star, one should understand the basic differences between criticising a government and criticising a people. No one can cite a single write-up or letter in The Daily Star where the people of the US were ever put to any kind of scratchy remarks. Like all the saner people of the world, including those of the US, UK, Canada, Italy, and many other countries, the morally conscious people of Bangladesh gave vent to their disapproval of the policy of President Bush whereby he engineered one of the most wanton aggressions the history had ever seen.

Finally, the people of Bangladesh has a great admiration for the people of the US and the US-Bangladesh relations is based upon time-tested mutual trust and friendship, not upon loyalty to President Bush. For our part, it is really heartening to note that hundreds of thousands of people of Bangladesh are now the citizens of that great country and many more including probably the "readers" of The Daily Star might try some day to follow the suit.

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In response to Shahjahan Ahmed - the US has not found the WMB's because they have been moved. There was been many times that mobile weapons labs were found to be scrubbed clean. What does that mean? There were weapons, but the military regime in Iraq wanted to hide them.

The criticism of the US is because it did not bow to world pressure, which I am so glad it did not. The Iraqi people are free and that is what matters. The capture of either Hussein or bin Laden, while the thought is very nice, is not the determining factor of whether the war is a success. The US has never said that they will capture these criminals. Come to think of it, the ease with which both wars came to a close shows the might and planning of the US military.

I have sympathy towards the innocent civilians about as much as you have for the terrorists. In every war, innocents always die. The US tried to minimise this, but when the Iraqis put military gear in proximity of civilian sites, what is going to happen?

Like I said, there is a lot of politics at work. The US helped Saddam and bin Laden when they needed them. This in no way gave those terrorists rights to wage war on innocent civilians.

In reponse to Sami Afzal - I praise your intent to go back to Bangladesh. You must be living off your dad's money as you know that life in Bangladesh is better for you than having to toil in the US.

I used to feel for Bangladesh - but why help a country where the people are dishonest. This country will never be able to get out of the poverty it is in.

I am proud to live in the US where I can say and do anything I want. I can go out anytime I want to. Can you do these in Bangladesh NO!

So, go back to your country, and don't waste the position of a good US student.

S. Khan, USA

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I am writing in response to the letter by Mahmood Elahi (June 3). The Daily Star did no wrong in publishing all the anti-American letters, because any sensible person, irrespective of his/her geographical origin, would agree with the main theme of these letters. I strongly disagree with Mr. Elahi that most of those letters were "highly contrived and biased". Instead I find Mr. Elahi highly biased, but I cannot comprehend why a Bangladeshi origin like him would do so, especially when he is in Canada, not in America.

Any person with a little sense would know that America went into this war with several long-term goals, none of which were to do any good for Iraq or her people. The people who are "students or settled in the United States" obviously know better what is going on inside this "greatest democracy" at least than those who are not residing in this country. Inferior are those people who are creating these problems, who are disregarding the UN and the world opinion and of course those who are supporting them blindly.

We, who live in this country, know the actual meaning of "greatest democracy" and the "freedom" that is enjoyed by the people here. It is that "great democracy" where NBC fires their veteran reporter for telling the truth, where each and every media are government-propaganda machines, where the Corporate people dictate the general public choices. Even in Bangladesh at least the print media are much more free than in that so-called "greatest democracy"- people have the chance to know about the negative-sides of the government and their decisions, which is quite impossible for Americans because of their biased media.

Mohammad Nazriar Rahman, University of Connecticut, USA

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I must say I was angered by Mr. Elahi's letter on anti-Americanism. The gentleman, I must say, is a very poor student of logic and jumps to conclusion without basis. He is equating criticism of the USA for its current role in world politics as anti-Americanism.

Not only that, he extends this illogical conclusion to suggest that people who are doing this have a deep-rooted inferiority complex vis-à-vis the Americans. Well for Mr. Elahi's information, it is not only his poor countrymen in Bangladesh who are being critical of the USA; the French, the Germans, the Japanese, to name a few are criticizing the USA over its role in Iraq as we the Bangladeshis are doing. What is interesting is, those who criticised the USA over Iraq are now by hindsight correct for the USA and Great Britain who invaded Iraq for reasons for its development of the weapons of mass destruction failed to find any. I would suggest Mr. Elahi to go back and see some of the news on CNN and BBC and see how the likes of Mr. Bush, Mr. Rumsfield and Mr. Blair lied day in and day out over Iraq. The issue was not, before the so-called coalition went to Iraq, that Saddam Hossain was a brute dictator that no one argued; it was that he had developed WMDs against US resolutions and was a threat to peace and therefore had to be disarmed.

Mr. Elahi should also know that there exist within the USA critics of the US actions in Iraq. Their views are more vocal and much more expressive than views expressed from Bangladesh in these columns against which Mr. Elahi has taken such great offense. Are they too anti-American and do they too also suffer from a sense of inferiority complex? Or is that Mr. Elahi is trying, and I hate to use the cliché, being holier than the pope?

Shahjahan Ahmed, Dhanmandi, Dhaka

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This is in reference to Mahmood Elahi's letter (June 3).

People who opposed America's war against Iraq did so not because they hated everything about America rather because of facts like Saddam had close ties to the US government in the past when he tortured and killed his own people and the US failed to provide any tangible proof to substantiate the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Please note that these facts do acknowledge the atrocities carried out by Saddam.

The US only intervenes in world affairs when it has direct or indirect interests in the matter. The US might appear selfish or arrogant because of such an inconsistent and unilateral foreign policy. Please note that it's the policy that is being criticised, not the outcome.

Pardon my ignorance but is there any law that prevents students and people in the US/ Canada from criticising the US foreign policy?

I would like to refer to the United Nations annual report on human development published in July last year. In the report, experts from relevant fields evaluated developmental parameters like average income, projected life expectancy and the level of literacy in 173 countries. The top 5 countries according to the report were Norway, Sweden, Canada, Belgium and Austria. Perhaps Mahmood Elahi could elaborate on why people all over the world are not criticising any of these 5 countries like the US?

Omar Sharif, Simon Fraser University, Canada