Madam, - I used to work in Iraq. I was a typical expatriate worker being paid what was seen at home as a lot of money and what was seen in Iraq as a fortune to do a job which was simple on the face of it but which was made far more difficult by the working conditions.
I liked Iraq. I was fascinated by the history which stared you in the face - the broken walls of Old Samarra, left just as Genghis Khan had breached them before slaughtering all the inhabitants; the twisted ziggurat style minaret of the mosque outside Samarra; the Ctesiphon arch of Haroun al Raschid's hunting lodge at Salman Pak, and so on. Most of all I was fascinated by the resilient, colourful people making do with next to nothing. I ate with them, drank with them, shared lots of jokes, got taken on many a picnic and expedition, was invited to weddings, learned some of their dances and customs and picked up a lifelong love of their music. Yet under it all was a hidden current of conflict and desperation.
We hired armed Kurdish guards to keep off thieves who stole our equipment and even the fuel from the diesel tanks of our transport. The Kurds enjoyed the job and the evidence of their enthusiasm was seen several times. We found suppliers in one area demanding exorbitant prices but a quick appeal to Baghdad got instant if grudging response. We had walked into a Shia/Sunni conflict on the contract, due to our main contractor being a Sunni and his foreman being Assyrian. The sole provider of stability was, despite his acknowledged cruelty, the then fairly recently installed leader of the country, Saddam Hussein. His American credentials (CIA trained) were well known even in remote areas and this seemed to enhance his aura of invincibility. The people seemed to feel that Saddam would lead them out of poverty and into prosperity and they would forgive his indiscretions if he managed it.
Not a lot different to other places, really. Now that the Americans have moved into Iraq after subjecting Saddam's country to years of utterly debilitating sanctions in order to both further their agenda and cover their tracks, I can call on my friends to bear witness that I, as an "Iraq hand" predicted time and again that if Saddam was toppled the country would dissolve into civil war. Now it is happening.
The Americans could not care less since they have achieved one of their objectives: the destabilisation of the Arab Middle East and the consolidation of Israel.
I grieve for the Iraqi people who deserve so much better.
I grieve for the lost trust between Arab and "Westerner". Arabs, like other people, are quite capable of learning the English language purely as a means to an end while hating every Englishman or American who ever lived; this hatred can now be seen pouring out in Falluja, in Samarra, in Baghdad and many other places in Iraq.
Never mind that the Americans have their B52s, their Abrams tanks, their drones, their helicopter gunships, their control of satellites, and their night sights. Holding down an entire country that hates them takes infantrymen - lots of them. This puts them in the position of the Germans in France or Holland during the second World War.
The Americans lost 50,000 men in Vietnam on a futile mission to stop Communism and failed; they have lost 700 men now in Iraq and the toll is steady and wearing. In Vietnam, the Vietnamese lost 10 times as many lives; the Arabs are now prepared to do the same to get rid of the Americans and I know they are capable of it.
The Americans will have also done the opposite to what they intended. The destabilisation has a cause on which the Arabs will now focus as never before: Israel. The fighting in Iraq has started to produce what the Arabs always lacked - hardened and effective fighters with field discipline. These fighters, once America has pulled out, will have but one target and Iraq will be their base.
In a word, the Yanks have blown it. - Yours, etc.,
TIM RYAN, Priory Street, New Ross, Co Wexford.
Madam, - In the midst of intelligent, lucid contributions on the crisis in Iraq from respected journalists such as Michael Jansen and Lara Marlowe, there is an opinion column by one Mark Steyn (The Irish Times, April 12th).
Is this columnist in situ to "balance" your perceived liberal foreign coverage? If so, can you really balance the truth by telling a lie? Madam Editor, do us all a favour and rattle Mr Steyn's hollow teacup right out of your paper. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN GIBBONS, Mulgrave Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, - When will the Americans understand that a so-called army of liberation soon becomes seen as one of occupation? Surely the British could have told them that. - Yours, etc.,
KEITH NOLAN, Caldra, Co Leitrim.