TONY ALLWRIGHT,
Madam, - Anti-warriors such as Vincent Browne (Opinion, November 6th), Paolo Cerioni (Letters, November 8th), Bill McSweeney (Opinion, November 8th) and countless others share three characteristics.
The first is a singular lack of appreciation of how the world has changed since the Twin Towers attacks last year. That dreadful event, followed by the recent attacks on the French oil tanker, in Bali, in Moscow - and preceded by the bombings in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania and, yes, the Twin Towers in 1993 - show the unrelenting face of organised, Islamic-centred terrorism that is already engaged in a merciless and savage war against the free, democratic world.
Second, the anti-warriors never ever come up with a coherent alternative strategy for dealing with the terrorism, other than to do nothing or to negotiate - but with no fallback proposals should negotiation fail. They also bandy around speculative figures such as "tens of thousands of civilians will be killed" without a shred of evidence, not least from the recent wars in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Third, they bring up the West's lamentable acceptance of Saddam's behaviour in the 1980s - if not complicity with it - as well as the presence of oil in Iraq, as two classic, but utterly illogical reasons for doing nothing about him today.
Saddam's track record - (a) invading neighbours; (b) gassing his own people; (c) repressing their freedoms; (d) flouting 16 UN binding resolutions; (e) building up weapons of mass destruction - demonstrates his malevolence beyond all reasonable doubt. He cannot be allowed to continue, because it is inevitable he will sooner or later use, or allow to be used, his weapons of mass destruction weapons for terrorist ends.
Ireland should be proud of its role in disarming Iraq by backing the upcoming UN Security Council resolution, not to mention providing tangible support in Shannon. This behaviour will help make the world a safer place for all. - Yours, etc.,
TONY ALLWRIGHT,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.