The Editor, Sir:

Mr. John Rapley's article 'Declaring mission accomplished in Iraq' in today's Gleaner sought to explore issues that will arise as "the world community will now begin to debate whether the war was a justifiable use of international law." According to Mr. Rapley, among the issues the world community will consider are: "the regime which succeeds the Baathist dictatorship" and 'the question of how the war was prosecuted." He concludes that it may come to pass that the war may be seen as "having been the right thing, wrongly done" and "War opponents might look to be on the wrong side of history."

In assessing the war, it seems to me some of the questions to be asked are: Can we have a civilized world where one country attacks another without provocation and in defiance of the world community (the UN)? If a 'good' regime appears in Baghdad, will that justify the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of millions of others that have already taken place? Does the end justify the means?

It is claimed that "Sunni tribes have recently allied themselves with the U.S. against the foreign fighters of al Qaeda." What should we make of this when we remember that 20 years ago, the US was allied with Bin Laden and together they achieved the great victory of driving the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan? That brought us 9/11. What will the present alliances bring us?

What about the six- and seven-year-old boys that daily see their families being slaughtered by companies like Blackwater, whose employees are beyond the reach of Iraqi law; and who see their fathers and uncles being tortured in places like Abhu Graib? Are we not producing terrorists who will come back to haunt us in the future?

Is military action in a so-called 'war on terror' the correct way to deal with terrorism which is essentially criminal activity? I am encouraged by the fact that the new Prime Minister of Britain seems to realize the stupidity of that course of action.

Failure of the world community to consider these issues will produce a dangerous world where we have terrorists threatening innocent people all over the globe and a superpower bombing one nation after another in a vain attempt to kill a swarm of fleas with a sledgehammer.

I am, etc.,

HUGH P SMYTHE

hsmythe@tstt.net.ttTrinidad

& Tobago