What exactly was MGG Pillai writing about in 'America gets its "Mother of All Battles"' (Sept 13)? Even by his own standards he has outdone himself a meandering, rambling piece of writing, with no discernible thesis and not much insight. To use a well-worn phrase, the writing process appeared to be much like throwing a plate of spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks. One comment after another with no theme apart from the broad and smug one of, "an arrogant US gets its comeuppance, oppressed peoples strike back!"

I was disappointed with MGG Pillai when he commented that "the killing of civilians in New York and Washington should not rate special mention when gloating is the order of the day when lesser mortals die in distant countries by weapons of destruction reined by the United States".

I don't think that the US or American people "gloat" when "lesser mortals" are killed by American weapons.

Over the past decade, the US has been admirable in the efforts that it takes in minimising civilian casualties during its military operations. The US could have flattened Baghdad with B-52s if it wanted to, but chose to use precision munitions to go after specific military targets instead. That it occasionally hits civilian targets was more a result of faulty intelligence or a tragic mistake rather than a deliberate attempt to kill civilians.

The air campaign over Kosovo was also carried out with an explicit desire to minimise civilian casualties (although I feel that the whole campaign was strategically flawed and pointless). Indeed, this regard for minimising or eliminating all civilian casualties suggests that the US considers the lives of all civilians to be valuable.

Surely, the killing of civilians anywhere merits some consideration be they Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi or Rwandan? Or does MGG Pillai, for some strange reason, feel that civilian lives in New York City and Washington DC are somehow worth less?

I also found MGG Pillai's condemnation of the supposed knee-jerk reaction of the US in fingering Osama bin Laden and other Arab terrorists rather curious. As of the time of this writing, the US government has done no such thing. On the day of the attack, President George W Bush labelled the attacks "apparent terrorist attacks" and did not explicitly name any suspects, and the US government still has not done so.

The ones currently pointing tentative fingers are commentators and writers who do not represent the US government. There is nothing wrong if these commentators and writers do their job and make reasoned guesses using the best available current and past information.

Lastly, my thoughts go out to the Americans and all other people affected by these tragedies. I wish you all well.