JOHN McGEORGE,
Sir, - It seems to me quite wrong on moral grounds and very foolish on selfish grounds to give anything less than unequivocal support to the US in its present military campaign.
For if a rogue group or nation wished to gain a foothold in Europe by taking over part of a European country, we would surely be the first in line, since we have no air force and no NATO protection.
In the albeit unlikely event of such an attack, the first thing we would do is to get on the phone to Uncle Sam. . . - Yours, etc.,
JOHN McGEORGE,
Doonbeg,
Co Clare.
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Sir, - Donal Delaney (January 3rd) asks us not to criticise the US, without any credible alternative to the Afghan campaign, which to date has claimed more lives than the massacre on September 11th.
At the watershed moment immediately after September 11th, George W. Bush and Tony Blair were at pains to differentiate between Islam and these fundamentalist terrorists. Islam, they said was "a peace-loving religion" - and there are many brilliant Muslim scholars and Imams from the West and Middle East capable of trying Osama bin Laden in a third country, as was originally called for.
Religious fanatacism cannot be quenched by a death sentence when the promise of a paradise lies beyond. Under Sharia law, had his actions been proven blasphemous, bin Laden and his suicidal group would hold no sway. If it had gone ahead, this trial would have served several purposes: to show solidarity between East and West on Muslim issues; to help understand the rift between Islam and Christendom; to avoid unnecessary use of weapons of mass destruction by the US; to undermine future Islamic fundamentalism and suicide bombing.
Instead, Western politicians gave lip service to the Muslim world and bombed Afghanistan indiscriminately. The gap between East and West is now greater than ever and the misunderstood children of dead Afghan and Palestinian parents will be the fodder for the next generation's war on terrorism. - Yours, etc.,
DAMIEN McBRIDE,
St Mary's Road,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.