PETRA SCHURENHOFER,
Sir, - Not too long ago a US president told the Irish people that "violence solves nothing". Today the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, has to "justify" his unwillingness to take part in or finance US-led violence here and there and everywhere.
Derek Scully, the Berlin correspondent of The Irish Times, seems to have a problem with the German "culture of restraint". Well, let me explain. My grandfather died due to injuries sustained in the first World War. My grandmother became a young widow. My mother lost her only sister and her first husband in the second World War. She was widowed at 21. Her neighbourhood was bombed to rubble. After the war she became a "Trümmerfrau" (one of the many women who cleared away the rubble).
War is nothing heroic. War means death, destruction and suffering. War means innocent human beings being blown to pieces. War means blood and tears. The problem with Germany was not its "culture of restraint", but its lack of restraint between 1933 and 1945.
Just because the blood and tears of Iraqis won't be shown on US, British or Irish TV doesn't mean that they won't be shed. It only means we won't be seeing them. I was delighted to read that Germany will not support the United States in the murdering and maiming of Iraqi men, women and children. - Yours, etc.,
PETRA SCHURENHOFER, Terenure, Dublin 6w.