Madam, - I respect the right of Trevor Troy (November 5th) to refer to Saddam Hussein as "an appalling man with a dreadful record". I disagree, as I see him as being no worse than most of the other Arab leaders in the Middle East, and considerably better than some.
The following are facts relating to his rule in Iraq:
1. Iraq is the only country in the Middle East where Christianity is allowed to flourish.
2. The Iraqi police service does not have a "Religious Police Branch" as does Saudi Arabia, where 15 schoolgirls were allowed to burn to death recently because the police said they were not properly dressed to be seen by firemen.
3. Iraq is the only Islamic country where a member of the government, the deputy PM, Tariq Aziz, is a practising Christian.
4. The Dominican Order of nuns has schools and convents there.
5. Iraq has a Catholic patriarch.
6. Iraqi women have the same rights as men by law (passed by Saddam) with regard to dress, employment, education, freedom of speech, appearing in public, etc. There is no difference. No other Middle Eastern Islamic country allows this.
7. Anyone who had read the story of April Glaspie, US ambassador to Iraq in 1990, will know that at the behest of President Bush she not only invited Saddam to invade Kuwait but suggested that he do so (Read John Simpson's House of War or John Pilger's Sins of Omission.).
The people of Iraq do not want a war. They have suffered appallingly as a result of UN sanctions enforced by the US and the UK. It is the US that wants a war so that American oil companies can get control of Iraq's massive oil reserves. If the Irish government has any respect for the tenets of Christianity it must do all in its power to prevent such a war. - Yours, etc.,
W.G.A. SCOTT, Friars Hill, Wicklow.