Madam, - I know there are plenty of better things I could have done with my time but I read Charles Krauthammer's column last Monday.
Referring to the Iraqi parliament he says: "It will allow, for example, the pro-American Anbar sheiks to become the legitimate rulers of their province". So it's not democracy that America wants in the region, so much as American allies.
On the prospect of withdrawing all of America's troops from Iraq he says: "Is that a reason to abandon Iraq to al-Qaeda and Iran." Iraq didn't have a problem with al-Qaeda or Iran before the invasion - facts that neo-cons like to ignore.
The problems Iraq has now were created by the American invasion and occupation. It's not the Iranian army that is blowing up Iraq and killing its citizens. What gives America the right to have influence in Iraq and demonise Iran? The invasion of Iraq was not about bringing freedom or democracy to Iraq or fighting al-Qaeda or removing weapons of mass destruction. It was about American supremacy in the region.
Mr Krauthammer finishes by asking us to imagine the transformative effect on the region and the whole Muslin world of a stable Iraq, friendly to the United States. Yes, we can imagine it: US military bases in Iraq, in the heart of the Muslin world, ready to strike at any Muslin country that dares to challenge American hegemony.
Even when neo-cons spout their garbage you can still see their real imperialist agenda underneath. - Yours, etc,
KIERON STYNES, Cooley Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12.