SIR – The USA and Iran might be at loggerheads, but that didn’t stop American forces flying off the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd responding to a distress call from an Iranian fishing boat, the Al Molai, that had been commandeered by suspected Somali pirates (T&A, January 7).

The Americans boarded the ship and detained 15 pirates who had been holding the crew and there were no reported casualties.

Somehow this incident justified British Labour politician Jack Straw saying in 2003: “The divide in the modern world is not the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’ between Islam and the West. The divide is between order and chaos.” (Newsweek).

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford