Madam, - I am profoundly concerned that the recent escalation of anti-Iranian rhetoric in the media in Britain and the US is the planned and programmed precursor to a war on Iran.
The vague unattributed claims of an anonymous UK government official, avidly taken up by hard-right American and British commentators, are beginning to sound like the distant drums of war.
The Iranian government is perhaps not very admirable, but Iran remains the only Arab country in the Middle East with any sort of working democracy. By comparison with the many truly vile regimes with which Western countries do business daily, the Chinese for example, the Iranian government are saints.
Also, military action against Iran, while it might relieve some domestic American political problems, would finally convince many Muslims that we in the West are their implacable enemies. The long-term consequences of this would likely be another Hundred Years War.
It is not too late to pull back. We must, as a matter of the highest priority, work to establish better relations at government, business and individual level with the Islamic heritage states. We must not repeat the mistake of the first World War, and allow a tiny number of reckless fools to stampede us into war.
If we do we will pay dearly. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY STAINES, Department of Public Health Medicine, UCD, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2.