In reply to the letter ‘Anti-British’ (March 1) by Francis Formosa, it is sad to hear such narrow views about me and of history in general.

It is the narrow-minded who see the world in monochrome. If you are not with us you are against us, if you criticise Winston Churchill you must be fascist, and so on.

One needs to open one’s mind and read more, especially accounts by historians, even British ones, who have taken Churchill to task over so many issues. One needs to go beyond the parochial approach to war and stop glorifying one side, for this is truly what makes the seeds of future wars to germinate.

It is very shallow for the correspondent to make it personal and talk about leopards. Maybe he thinks that people with Italian names are, by definition, pro-fascist. In that case, he then thinks all Italian partisans who fought and helped overthrow fascism were also fascists, simply because they were Italian.

And as if King Edward VIII was not himself fascist, although he was British royalty.

The correspondent’s logicis skewed.

Fascism was and still is a blight on human civilisation, there is no doubt about that. But so is any other form of imperialism, whether of the Comintern type, the ancient Roman type, which Mussolini glorified, the Spanish conquistadors and, yes, even the British, French, Italian and American type. One needs to see beyond one’s nose to realise this and to realise that glorifying imperialist war heroes is not the way forward to a world built on justice and harmony.

Sadly, such ridiculous comments as those in the letter in question are nothing new as some people fall to the temptation to sidestep the contents of an article, the truth of which might hurt, and lash out instead through insults and trying to tarnish the writer’s name. It is a very old and devious tactic to take the heat off a debate by shooting, thrashing and labelling the messenger.