SIR – David Petraeus, one of America’s top generals (report, March 27), refers to the alliance between Britain and America and appears to suggest that Britain’s relationship with the EU is similar. It is not.

The “special relationship” is an alliance between two sovereign nations from which either can withdraw without any major difficulty. Membership of the EU is fundamentally different, because it involves the handing over of sovereignty to a bureaucratic government in Brussels. Once sovereignty is handed over it cannot be recovered. The US would never enter into such an arrangement.

General Petraeus seems to harbour the belief that by remaining in the EU we can have some influence on it, but there is scant evidence that this is the case. He also suggests that by leaving we would be retreating into isolationism. I believe the opposite is true, as it would enable us to interact freely with the rest of the world.

Michael Morris

Little Wratting, Suffolk

SIR – General Petraeus insists that Brexit would raise the terrorist threat to Britain. General Michael Hayden, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on the other hand, has explained how the EU “gets in the way” of the ability of a member state to protect its citizens.

Why would we want to be part of a union that includes members that are as incompetent in matters of security as Belgium; a union that is incapable of policing its borders and is contemplating allowing anyone with a Turkish passport unfettered access to all member countries?

Major General Julian Thompson

London SW6

SIR – As an American living in Britain, I am saddened by General Petraeus’s comments.

There is a view among many Americans that Europe is one place, rather than a range of countries with their own cultures, languages and levels of development. There is also a lack of awareness that many EU member states are relatively young democracies.

The aim of the Brussels-based autocracy to bind this diverse continent into a single state has resulted in the disastrous euro, an ill-planned open-borders system and uncontrollable immigration.

There are many advantages to cooperation among the free and sovereign states of Europe. The EU must face up to the need for change.

D N Freund

Tiffield, Northamptonshire

SIR – General Petraeus invokes the spirit of Churchill on the importance of allies, suggesting that Britain should remain in the EU.

Many would agree with him, but unfortunately those same EU allies were dismissive of David Cameron’s attempts to negotiate reform. This has angered people in Britain and rightly deserves a Brexit vote in reply.

B J Colby

Portishead, Somerset

Save our steel

SIR – The Government should be honest and say how much it would cost to take Tata’s steel operations temporarily into state ownership, until they could be sold as a viable entity, compared with the cost of thousands of job losses in the areas affected and the subsequent social deprivation.

I suspect the latter would greatly outweigh the former. We would also have to factor in the consequences of being dependent on foreign suppliers for such a strategic commodity as steel.

Ted Shorter

Tonbridge, Kent

Rail investment