Madam, - It is a little repulsive, though not surprising, to read a correspondent to your Letters page (June 10th) complaining about the lack of condemnation of the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Such brute justice, meted out in such a grisly fashion, is not, it seems, the proper manner to deal with mere "terrorist suspects". Such a heinous act again reminds of the callous imperial supremacy of the United States, from whom we must now be "protected", etc, etc.
There is little doubt that the invasion of Iraq is a moral calumny, in which the United States has shamed the great tradition of its founding, that the subsequent chaos and bloodshed can be attributed to its presence, and that the ineptitude and corruption of military officials has created a climate in which even the most noble intentions - for there are some - lead to ineffectiveness at best, and savagery at worst. Even the most cursory scan of actions in Haditha, in Fallujah, and in Bagdhad, confirm this.
However, to refer to a man who has glorified every kind of vicious murder, in the name of abstract nihilism and holy war, as a mere "terrorist suspect", who should thus be treated with kid gloves, is to play evasive and facetious games with words. Zarqawi was, simply put, a walking moral vacuum: his senseless bloodlust radiated out, early and daily, upon an innocent populace, wreaking national havoc and personal devastation. Here was a man equally at ease beheading supplicant prisoners and directing bombs to unsuspecting hospitals.
He was not disillusioned, as is suggested by a ridiculous analogy: his illusions were bright and pellucid, a fantasia of an ethnically cleaned and religiously purified Iraq.
In short, he was not a "militant", as he is frequently designated, but a monster. Loud bellows of relief should echo around the Middle East, now that his toxic presence has been removed. There can be no détente with deluded fascist murderers of Zarqawi's stripe: he was not the leader of some beleaguered Iraqi Maquis. Just because his evil was arrayed against the unjust might of the United States does not confer justice on his horrific work. That his death can meet with disapproval, not to say condemnation, from the Irish anti-war "left" is a rather shocking display of just how much such groups have mortgaged their principles in order to oppose America at any cost. - Yours, etc,
SEAN COLEMAN, Brian Avenue, Marino, Dublin 3.
Madam, - Jack Downey (June 10th) asks the question: "Who will protect us from the United States?" The answer is that unless we turn into a brutal dictatorship which sponsor global terrorism, invade our neighbours and commit genocide against our own people, we will not need protection.
The real question is: who will protect us from the naivety of Mr Downey and those who share his views? - Yours, etc,
JOHN NELIGAN, Castlebyrne Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin.