I wrote the following to denny wilson, explaining my opinion of the war on terror.

Of September the eleventh, 2001

I remember it quite clearly. I had just turned 19 – the age of your nephew – and had began college that week. Because of the abysmal quality of British special schools, I lacked the qualifications to go to university, so September 2001 saw me starting two courses at Macclesfield college, about six miles from my house. The first two days were half days, filled with activities for students to get acquainted with the new surroundings. It was very different from the rather mothering environment of school, which had been more like day-care than education.

The 11th, you will recall, was a Tuesday. I had been brought home in time for lunch. Unusually, both my parents were home from work, perhaps keen to see how I had got on, and after lunch Dad began flipping through satellite television channels. I was slouched in an armchair, not very interested in the television, when dad switched to CNN, and I saw the first tower smoking in the autumn sun.

“A Cessna” I thought, “some idiot in a Cessna had crashed his plane into the tower!” We watched the smoke rise and cover New York, and then a second plane hit. This was no accident; the world had changed.

At that moment I felt personally grieved. I had been up those towers. I had also seen the beauty of the American country; smelt the sequoias up in the Rockies; I had been to a baseball match and had loved every moment; I had read the novels of Hemingway and Twain; in short, I loved America and its people. How could anyone do such a thing? How could anyone hijack a plane and murder so many people in cold blood?

For, regardless of America’s actions abroad, it was in cold blood that those attacks were carried out. At school, I had been around people who had fought so hard for life, many of whom would not reach their twenties. How could these terrorists just throw their life away – not only theirs but those of hundreds more, and for a faith for which they have no proof? I resolved that these people are the antithesis of my friends, whom I regard so highly: these people are scum.

I maintain – and this I swear – that I still love the United states. I love to travel, and would go to your country tomorrow, if I had the chance, although this applies to just about anywhere. I mean no harm to her people: yourself, your sister, and especially not your nephew. However, I would argue that criticising American foreign policy and criticising it’s armed forces are not the same thing, and I know that the latter is doing a fine job.

Yet how can I feel so aggrieved at the atrocities of September the eleventh and not support the war on terror? This, I admit, is a bit of a paradox. There is no doubt that we must prevent another such atrocity. But if we go out and actively seek to kill terrorists, I fear that the fundamentalists will be angered so much that their numbers will swell, rather than deplete. Over the last few days we have seen militancy growing in Iraq, with some reports claiming a death toll of 300. both the CIA and MI5 have, apparently seen evidence of more terrorist preparations, which must be stopped.

Like Hitler, the terrorists must not be appeased, but unlike Hitler, they cannot be invaded. They have no territory we can invade, no battlements we can storm. Attack, and their numbers may multiply; do nothing and they will attack. Bush chose the former, but I would argue that the latter sends out a stronger message: we will not be cowed and continue with our lives regardless. Try to swat a fly, and one will anger it further till it stings again, but stay still and ignore it, and it will fly off.

Nevertheless, please accept this letter as my apology. I have learned many things from your site, and although I still believe that the government, as an extension of the people, is the best way to achieve some kind of equality, I have learned many things from reading your entries. Yours truly, Matthew Goodsell