Madam, - Dermot Meleady takes me to task (March 1st) for allegedly "trotting out uncritically the figure of 655,000 Iraqi dead" since the US-led invasion of Iraq. He has either not fully read or misread the Lancet reports and/or misunderstands the limitations of the Iraq Body Count reports.
The Lancet reports estimate all deaths as result of the war, including deaths from diseases, depleted uranium cancers, water and sewerage pollution caused by deliberate bombing of treatment plants. The Iraq Body Count records direct combat deaths, and then only those that have been reported in at least two international media outlets. Many Iraqi war deaths go unreported, and many more people die from vicarious war-related causes.
It was predictable and predicted that the invasion of Iraq by US forces would cause such casualties and would likely lead to a bloody civil war. It matters little to the victims whether they were killed by an Abrams tank or died because of polluted water, or leukaemia caused by depleted uranium, or civil war sparked off by the US invasion. A direct hit by a bullet may be the least painful end.
In any case, arguing over just how many people have died in Iraq since March 20th, 2003 misses the point. The language used in Mr Meleady's letter - "trotting out", "peddling", "propagating the myth" - seems intended to discredit the basis of my article, which is that the Irish Government was inherently wrong to actively assist the US in an unlawful war, thereby being complicit in mass murder. Unlawfully killing a dozen people is mass murder, as is killing 60,500 people, or causing the deaths of 655,000 people.
Mr Meleady blames Saddam Hussein for the civil war in Iraq over the past few years. Hussein was an evil dictator who fought a war against Iran supported by active Western encouragement, US military intelligence, European and Russian weapons, and of course tons of unpaid-for Irish beef.
He carried out mass murder against the Kurds, the Shias and the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq, using poison gas manufactured with the help of German and other European companies. All this was wrong, but does not justify further wrongs inflicted on the same Iraqi people by the US. Saddam had no part in the terrorist attacks on the US, and was already in jail when Iraq descended into civil war.
It is vital that Ireland, and other US military allies, accept their share of the blame for Iraqi deaths, and begin the process of atonement and reparations. - Yours, etc,
EDWARD HORGAN, (Commandant,retd), Newtown, Castletroy, Limerick.