Sir, - If memory be the least reliable of our faculties, then, judging from Kevin Myers's Irishman's Diary of November 4th, compassion is the least used. He may be dismayed by the dreadful suffering the people of Iraq have had to endure under sanctions, but clearly he agrees with Madeleine Albright that the "price is worth it". It is unbelievable that such odious opinions still occupy column inches when neutral observers of the effects of sanctions in Iraq condemn them as diabolically cruel. Is Mr Myers so naive as to believe that the Iraqi people, or the world for that matter, will see Saddam as anything other than the monster he really is because sanctions on essential goods are lifted?
Yes, Saddam is a monster; yes, his son, U-day, is a monster, as are the top brass in the Ba'athist regime. But it is monstrous also to prolong the cruel suffering of innocents. Saddam knows that he is a dictator. Those who support the sanctions inflict pain and misery in the name of humanity. Personally, I have a problem telling which is the greater monster. - Yours, etc.,
Khalid Haneef, Bachelors Walk, Dublin 1.