Madam, - As US forces entered Baghdad last year our TV screens were filled with the appalling images of Saddam's torture rooms and execution chambers. These, we were told, were part of a terrible past from which Iraq had been liberated.
The interim Iraqi administration responded to the horrific stories of past brutality by announcing that the new judicial system would exclude capital punishment, giving hope that civilised standards might prevail in a troubled country.
Now, however, following the evidence of torture of detainees, we are told that Iraq will align itself with its neighbours and friends - Saudi Arabia and the US - by reinstating the death penalty and ensuring that Saddam's gallows are not allowed to stand idle.
Much has been made of the place of values in the struggle against terrorism. The dark, fundamentalist philosophy of revenge which underlines the barbarity of the state-imposed death penalty has nothing whatever to contribute to building a better world. - Yours, etc.,
TONY BROWN, Bettyglen, Raheny, Dublin 5.