How US sparked the anti-war campaign

NIALL MURPHY'S scepticism (Letters, August 17) about the aims of the protesters in last year's anti-war rallies is commonplace among those who apparently had no doubts about the assertions of the US, Britain and Australian governments in relation to Iraq.

True, our sense of outrage should be greater when our governments criminally drag their feet while dealing with the crisis in Darfur. But to compare the response to this genocide with the protests last year misses the point of the anti-war campaign completely.

The size of the protests last year showed that opposition to US foreign policy was shared by many sections of society and it is hard to believe that such a large group was simply anti-American.