This letter was received by the Wilts and Glos Standard

To: The Editor,

Re: “Stunning” photos of B-52s

Yes, the photos and text in the March 21 Standard were stunning. What was particularly stunning was the lack of critical awareness of just what these instruments of destruction were doing here in the Cotswolds.

Whether carpet bombing hapless conscripts in the Iraqi desert in 1991 or dispensing cruise missiles in 2003, US bombers at RAF Fairford are the harbingers of death.

The photo proudly displaying the bombs painted on the side of the plane was especially repellent.

How many people died for each of those missions? Whether we are in the EU or not, RAF Fairford is America’s power projection platform in Europe, thus making Britain a co-conspirator in any crimes committed by US bombers operating from Fairford.

For example, US bombers flying from Fairford in 1999 destroyed the electrical power plant for the city of Belgrade.

This had nothing to do with protecting the people of Kosovo, who were hundreds of miles away, and the bombing was purely an act of terrorism against the people of Serbia.

As we sleepwalk away from our European partners, we shall become even more in the thrall of the United States.

They have a “forward operating base” at RAF Fairford where the Americans can fly in their GM foods and chlorine washed chickens, to say nothing about using the Cotswolds as a launchpad for military violence.

As I discovered in 2003, the Gloucestershire Constabulary has no authority over what happens at RAF Fairford when the Americans are there.

How can people be so vexed by “Brussels” telling us what shape bananas have to be, but nobody seems concerned about a foreign military presence occupying our own country?

James Derieg

Kemble