Trump wants us to pay more for Nato, yet the US has cost us big over the last 60 years

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Protesters await Trump’s arrival near to his golf course at Turnberry, Ayrshire (PA)

Trump says Europe must pay more to defend the “free world” and fight with the US in the “war against terror”. If he could read history he would know that Europe is suffering from the incursions and invasions instigated by the US in their war against socialism and their fight to retain oil resources over the past 60 years.

It was the US who destabilised Iran by instigating a coup against Mosaddegh in 1953 in “operation Ajax”. This incursion, in which the UK collaborated, was to ensure that social democracy (“socialism”) did not get established and take ownership of their own oil resources. This US war against socialism went on to destabilise Central America and the Middle East as well as creating killing fields in Vietnam and Cambodia. In Afghanistan in the 1970s, the CIA armed the Mujahideen to overthrow the arrival of democracy and a socialist government. The Mujahideen morphed into the Taliban who embraced al-Qaeda and the rest is history with the arrival “Islamic Terrorism”.

In more recent times the US led the invasion of Iraq, the bombing of Libya and Syria, the fanning of the flames of the so-called Arab Spring, the support of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the arming and support of Saudi Arabia in the bombing of Yemen. The US, with a little help from sycophantic UK leaders, has destabilised the Middle East and created, chaos, civil wars, millions of deaths, famine and a tidal wave of refugees pouring into Europe. Moreover, many of the acts of terrorism throughout Europe can be directly linked to these historic US invasions and incursions into other peoples’ lands.

Europe should unite, shake off the dominance of the US and create a powerful European alliance that can stand up to this crazy president with his bullying behaviour, his trade wars and his xenophobia. We have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon the US. This is especially true of the UK. Europe has the wealth, the resources and the capability to defend itself against any threat and bring stability to a world in which men like Trump, Putin and Erdogan are demolishing democracy, unity, tolerance and decency. A powerful United Europe is a threat to these people – that’s why they are determined to make it fall apart.

Martin Deighton
Woodbridge

We were right to march against him

As an American who has lived in the UK for 15 years, I did not agree with Hope Howard’s piece (As an American I get your Trump protests – but they’ll have no effect).

Conversation takes two and, in Trump’s case, only one party is capable of listening. Trump is giving licence to a divisiveness, bigotry and racism that, while existing previously, was kept under wraps. Hope seems to admire the public display of these sentiments whereas I, like many US citizens living in the UK, prefer to give voice to our better selves and hope that the devils will fade away. Contrast the civic sentiments voiced by John Kennedy (himself no saint) with the guttural ramblings of Trump.

So no, the anti-Trump marches may result in no immediate policy changes but they are a means of demonstrating that thousands of people would like to see the influence of this particular public figure wiped from the world stage. And I was proud to have been a part of it.

Anita Feiger
Address supplied

Have we lost all control to the US?

Today we have learned that Donald Trump’s administration lobbied the British ambassador in Washington in the case of Tommy Robinson.

I look forward to the Brexiteers telling us how outraged they are by the US government interfering in the workings of the British legal system. It says a lot that Trump’s administration is unable to understand our laws around incitement to violence and the purpose of court orders.

So much for taking back control.

Chris Key
Address supplied

Our lips are sealed

After their despicable decision not to allow the Trump balloon to fly over Turnberry, Police Scotland have asked for anyone with information about the pilot of the microlight that flew over Trump’s golf course to come forward. Good luck with that.

G Forward
Stirling

We shouldn’t be paying for Trump to play

I can well understand that the prime minister deemed it prudent to mobilise police forces from far and wide to protect the Stable Genius at a considerable cost to the taxpayer while offering herself up as a punch bag for his “suggestions”.

I am somewhat mystified why the same taxpayer is expected to shoulder the cost of the genius’s private golf weekend in Scotland. Surely this is taking hospitality and generosity several steps too far. Certainly at a cost of in excess of £5m?

I can only assume that the funds can be readily found on that hidden, magic money tree: the same money tree that allows the government to continue to govern and that so generously funded the DUP?

Gunter Straub
London NW3

Don’t forget the chlorinated chicken

Sir Christopher Meyer (I was ambassador to the US) was not at all convincing in his attempts to make me feel bad about not welcoming Trump to the UK. He cited a friend who found the Trump balloon offensive because it “sought to mock the office of presidency and the American republic itself”. That misses the point entirely. The balloon (a harmless gesture) mocks a particular individual who, it could be argued, himself makes a mockery of the office of presidency and of America.

Sir Christopher then went on to list the economy, the military and intelligence as three of our “vast interests invested in the US”. But they are all at risk as a result of our leaving the EU as well as because of any popular movement against the odious Trump. We can certainly engage with Trump but we do not have to embrace him or stop mocking him. It seems that, in the tragic aftermath of Brexit, we are condemned to be a colonial outpost of the US, at the mercy of its punitive trade tariffs (not forgetting its chlorinated chicken) and, currently, led by a bully who is anti-women, anti-climate change, anti-Muslim, anti-refugee, anti-immigrant and pro-gun lobby. Try harder, Sir Christopher.

Nevertheless, I wish you a speedy recovery from your senseless and brutal attack.

Beryl Wall
London, W4