Flexible U.S. foreign policy

One can always rely on Mr. Richardson to be more than "frank", but alas, his almost unshakable obsession for the wicked and evil United States of America still appears to be a wee bit one-sided -- unless of course he himself was an ex-CIA operative -- no, surely not.

Mind you, a few more nights watching Fox news and I might well find myself agreeing with Frank -- time will tell on that one. Sliding back to the subject, I do think that most people know that the Americans have a somewhat "flexible" world policy, as do the British, French, Germans, Chinese, Russians and even those green martians, or for that matter, anyone else that walks this Earth on two legs carrying the dreaded diplomatic bag.

It's "dog eat dog" out there, and at the drop of a hat (or a bomb if you like) your today's best friend will surely be tomorrow's enemy, or vice-versa if the money is right. Someone has to win this so-called madness, because yours truly, together with millions of other rational, level-headed and well-behaved football supporters, want to be around to see England win the World Cup in Japan next year.

As for the statement about the place where civilization had its origin, according to my dictionary "civilization" means state of being civilized -- and according to my reckoning we haven't reached that stage yet.

DAVID WALLIS

Medan, North Sumatra