Sir, - Your Washington Correspondent, Patrick Smyth (The Irish Times, November 17th), says that "left-wing" criticisms of civilian casualty levels of the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan no longer matter because they have become "a matter of history". The clear implication is that the criticism is irrelevant now.
Well, let's generalise that argument. All the current tribunals in this country are tackling "matters of history". In relation to the Troubles, the Omagh bombing and Bloody Sunday are "matters of history". On a wider plane, the Holocaust was a "matter of history".
Yet all these "matters of history" are not only worth remembering, they are worth investigating. And in all those cases the "history" was much older than the bombing of Afghanistan. - Yours, etc.,
Phelim Murnion, Oranmore, Co Galway.