Is this perhaps the ultimate letter to the editor from a Stopper?
YOUR editorial on the election in Iraq (Middle East on trial, last week) is at odds with the real world. It is easy to demonise Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but for a “crazed fundamentalist” he is uncommonly good at his job, which is directed towards a different public from yours.
You say “the coalition invasion was right to overthrow Saddam Hussein” — a statement unsupported by law, morality or sound political judgment. Saddam was quite controllable without destroying Iraq. You idolise Western-style democracy, though it has produced misguided demagogues such as Bush and Blair, a point apparently not lost on Iraqi expatriates.
You suggest Iraq’s pattern represents “the future of the Middle East”; if so, God save the Middle East from being decimated into “democracy”. You say “the cause is noble”, when, in reality, the cause is driven by the medieval forces of personal vanity and commercial greed.
The reduction of Iraq to puppetdom will stand in history as an act of shameless bullying but at least it will serve to prove that real democracy cannot be imposed by force of arms.
Colin Smith
Rainford, St Helens
I think I might cut that one out and keep it as a perfect reminder of what so many were thinking and saying about this historic struggle. As so often, it contains not a single thought about the Iraqi people.