Madam, - Mark Steyn (Opinion, January 24th) berates Democratic Senators in the US for demanding "an exit strategy in Iraq", saying: "there isn't one, and there shouldn't be one, and it's a stupid expression".
He then tries to vindicate his point by saying that swift exits after military invasions in the past have seen devastating long-term consequences, whereas when Britain went into Ireland it had no exit strategy - and "which looks like the smarter approach now?"
Britain sought neither to disarm nor to liberate Ireland. Britain's presence here was a period of colonialism, which by its very nature is characterised by the suppression of political, personal and religious liberties.
Mr Steyn, in his hope to "spread liberty" wouldn't be advocating a period of widespread American colonialism in the Middle East by any chance, would he? - Yours, etc.,
EAMONN DELANEY Jnr, St Fintan's Crescent, Sutton, Dublin 13.
Madam, - As someone who rarely takes pen to paper to express my views, may I please have an opportunity to express my utter disgust at the killing of the parents of six Iraqi children (The Irish Times, January 20th). I find it deplorable that with all the training and state-of-the-art American troops' training and weaponry, they should have to resort to such barbaric tactics as to stop a car by shooting dead the front-seat occupants.
What memories will the now orphaned children have of their parents? What depth of hatred will these innocent children have towards the US in years to come? How can those soldiers go back to their own families and say the cause was a just one? How many more distressed children do we have to see on our front pages before the Bush administration acknowledges that its presence in Iraq is a lost cause? How many more children have to witness their parents being shot? - Yours, etc.,
NIALL HIGGINS, Rush, Co Dublin.