BRITISH and American ideologies remain exactly what they were in the age of empires and extermination of indigenous peoples.

There is more than a passing resemblance between actions in the Middle East and those of the colonial era. Israel, initially supported by Britain, and financed by the US, is a classic example.

Indigenous people were forcibly removed amid massacres and general ethnic cleansing. They were demonised by the international community and the world blackmailed into silence with anti-Semitism. The continued obsession with the short-lived Nazi regime is part of the smoke screen.

Britain and America have for centuries invaded, killed, occupied and demonised those who fight back with terms such as "terrorism". Why apologise generations later when no genuine effort is made to undo the damage and do exactly the same on another stage?

Quentin Poulsen, Istanbul, Turkey