Southern discomfort
From Geoffrey Patch Sir: The truth of Petronella Wyatt's observations (Singular life, 8 May) is, sadly, manifest deep in the fibre of the American reality. Once these barbaric sensibilities were relegated to the reviled margins of society. Since the Vietnam war they have gradually ascended through systemic corruption, greed and ignorance to the prominence that we now endure daily in every aspect of our national life. The war in Iraq is the least of what we have lost.
Geoffrey Patch
Dallas, Texas
From Peter Dreyer Sir: Having lived in Virginia for 16 years, I can assure you that Petronella Wyatt's article is mostly drivel. As for working-class Virginians being 'some of the most terrifying creatures on this planet'. I can assure you that I have met more terrifying creatures in Camden Town. As for racism and illiteracy, the mayor of my city is black, the city manager is a turbaned Sikh, and 20 minutes' walk from my front door I have access to some five million books in the libraries of the University of Virginia, including an entire floor devoted to French books.
The atrocities committed in Iraq are the product of a system rotten from the top down, yours as much as ours. I too feel sorry in a way for Lynndie England. She and a few others will undoubtedly be made scapegoats for what their faceless commanders surely authorised.
Peter Dreyer
Charlottesville, Virginia
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