FRANK BAIGEL,
Madam, - If Iraq is the free and peace-loving country with little or no religious intolerance and great internal harmony depicted by W.G.A.Scott (November 11th), one wonders why it has found it necessary to build up stocks of material for producing chemical or nuclear weapons.
I also have a suspicion that the Marsh Arabs in the south of Iraq, whose land has been drained and is now arid and depopulated, don't feel part of the idyllic picture painted by Mr Scott. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK BAIGEL, Prestwich, Manchester, England.
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Madam, - Please allow me to to repudiate Tony Allwright's assertion (November 9th) that "anti-warriors never ever come up with a coherent alternative strategy for dealing with terrorism".
The supreme anti-warrior in our tradition taught the logic of loving one's enemies (preferring to die oneself than to sacrifice others), backed up by sharing any temporary surplus with those in need. I find this social strategy coherent, and believe it will work when generally adopted. It is, of course, the diametric opposite of the prevailing policies of the Roman, British and American empires.
In particular, if the all-powerful and extravagantly wealthy "Christian" West copped on at this late stage - when our global media make it possible as never before to change habits everywhere at once - and perhaps offered Saddam Hussein and his coterie honourable retirement in one of his palaces (his excesses are no grosser than many in our own history), we might just have peace in our time and a sustainable future for our clever (but demented) species. - Yours, etc.,
HUGH SACKER, Knockandarragh, Donard, Co Wicklow.