Madam, - I notice that the new US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, believes that the US is not winning the war in Iraq. Indeed, the Iraq Study Group set up to advise President Bush has described the situation as "grave and disturbing" and urged action to prevent the slide towards chaos. Kofi Annan has said that the situation in Iraq is much worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein. Things go from bad to worse on a daily basis.
There was never any justification for the US and British invasion of Iraq. We all knew that the argument about weapons of mass destruction was nonsense. Iraq is now in a civil war and the most unspeakable depravity and viciousness is a daily reality for its people. Over 2 million unfortunate people have been displaced and are now refugees.
Apart from the horrible tit-for-tat murders and kidnappings among Sunni and Shia the situation for the Christian minority there has become unbearable. Before the US invasion of Iraq Christians and Muslim had good relations. As the Irish Catholic newspaper pointed out in a leading article (November 30th), the rise of Islamic militancy in Iraq has resulted in numerous killings and kidnappings of Christians and the widespread destruction of churches. There is now a mass exodus of Iraqi Christians into Turkey.
Iraq is in a nightmare and there's no solution in sight. It would appear that all kinds of violent, committed militants have made their way to the country with the intention of causing total chaos and mayhem.
It looks as if President Bush has caused a far more serious and intractable problem for the United States, its young soldiers and, indeed, the entire world than Vietnam ever was. Maybe prayer is the only answer. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY REDMOND,
North Great George's Street,
Dublin 1.