Madam, - Dr Fintan Sheerin (February 5th) tells us the bombing in Baghdad the previous Friday "must be met with utter contempt by all civilised people" and that the act was "even more disgusting" because "it was committed through the use of two women with intellectual disability".
The Irish Times's report of the bombing noted that a representative from the Iraqi military had stated this latter fact but that "he did not elaborate on how the Iraqi military knew about [ the bombers'] mental condition". Like many such hazy reports from the battlefront, it is all a bit unclear.
In any case, the bombing in the markets was truly horrific, as are all bombings of civilian targets. Take, for example, the morning of January 10th when, as part of the so-called surge, the US air force dropped 38 bombs with a total explosive power of 40,000 pounds against supposed al-Qaeda insurgents in the village of Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad. This was one of the biggest aerial attacks since March 2003, killing or injuring dozens of Iraqi civilians, many of them women, children and the elderly. This latter attack hardly bleeped on the media radar, so it is difficult for all "right-thinking people" to even be aware of it, let alone to hold it in the "utter contempt" it deserves.
All these violent bombings, unknown in Iraq five years ago, are a direct result of the invasion and occupation by the US and British military in March 2003, an action in which the Irish Government has implicated the citizens of Ireland through its facilitation of the US military at Shannon Airport. We should certainly be critical of all horrific bombings but let us have some perspective on the issue and lay the criticism where it belongs - at the door of the Pentagon. - Yours, etc,
JIM ROCHE, Secretary, Steering Committee, Irish Anti-War Movement, Dublin 1.