Madam, - Having columnists attacking other columnists is probably not the most exciting journalism, but Mark Steyn's assault on Robert Fisk (Opinion, October 11th) deserves a reply. Fisk knows more about the Middle East through the mote in his left eye than Steyn will ever say through the boom in his right voice.
As for accuracy, your regular Monday morning monotone predicted, without any hedging or humming or hawing, after the capture of Saddam Hussein, that "the insurgency will continue for a few weeks yet, but it will peter out, like the dictator, not with a bang but with a whimper" (The Irish Times, December 15th, 2003).
That was 10 months ago. Some whimper, some peter, some prediction. - Yours etc.,
ALAN TITLEY, Ascaill Uí Ghríofa, Dublin 11.