Sir, - Ten years ago, Saddam Hussein killed up to 200,000 Kurdish civilians, (according to the UK-based Minority Rights Group). Most of them died in a series of chemical gas attacks, (ingredients supplied by the US, UK, France and Germany).
Saddam Hussein continues to brutally repress any opposition from within the country, ruling through fear and persecution. He has continued to persecute the Kurds imposing a further embargo on the "safe-haven", cutting off supplies of electricity, food and humanitarian relief.
Air strikes by the US will not change this awful reality for Iraqi and Kurdish people. They are more likely to significantly exacerbate the hardship Iraqi people suffer. Potential weapons manufacturing sites are dual purpose, so, at the very least, electricity and pharmaceutical productions will be hit, and the already shattered infrastructure will be weakened. Again we hear the extraordinary thesis that, after air strikes by the US, the internal opposition will finally rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein. This surely is the most sinister example of social amnesia. We are expected to have no memory or understanding of 1991 when the US and allies stood by as Saddam Hussein brutally crushed the Kurds and Shiites who rose up after the Gulf War. It is too much to expect that, as things get even worse for the Iraqi people, they will have the strength, organisation or resources to rise up and replace Saddam Hussein with a democratic alternative. Air strikes cannot and will not impose democracy.
Yes indeed, impeach Mr Clinton, for if he goes ahead with air strikes today, he will have committed an unspeakable immorality. - Yours, etc., Anne McCluskey,
Kurdistan Solidarity Ireland, 10 Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.