A chara, - The death and suffering caused by the London bombings is horrific. As onlookers we can only only imagine how the lives of the bereaved have been shattered by such sudden and tragic loss. It makes you wonder how the people of Iraq feel.
Tony Blair and George Bush talk about "stiffening [ their] resolve" in their war on terror, a war Condoleezza Rice believes is now centred in Iraq. That too makes you wonder how the people of Iraq feel, and what they must be anticipating.
The British Government refers to "crime scenes" at the bomb blast sites. What words would the Iraqi people put on the US invasion and calculated destruction of their country? Tony Blair refers to innocent, indiscriminate suffering. That also makes you wonder how the people of Iraq felt about being bombed at night from planes they could not see.
Tony Blair and George Bush say they want to end suffering in the poorest nations, as do many of us. But on hearing this, how must the people of Iraq feel? Is their death and pain something different from the rest of us? Two years ago were they somehow less deserving of respect and dignity? Was their suffering any less painful than the suffering of so many innocent Londoners?
Perhaps the bombs in London make it clear. There are many kinds of malevolence - but suffering? Of that there is only one kind. - Is mise,
CONOR MEADE, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
Madam, - I would like to offer my condolences to the victims of the bombing outrage in London. I believe that I have the freedom to write this letter because the British people refused to bow before fascism in 1939 and defended Western democracy.
Just as the atrocities committed by the IRA, acts that shamed the people of Ireland, failed to intimidate the people of Britain so will Islamic terrorists fail in their evil endeavours. - Yours etc.,
TONY MORIARTY, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6W.