Insensitive bravado

Sir, - Your editorial ``Insensitive bravado'' (Feb. 19) correctly highlights the shortcomings in the U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, pursuing ``the unfinished anti-Hussein agenda of his father''. With stoic patience, the Iraqi people suffer enormous hardships under crippling sanctions. Despite the dictator's humiliating defeat after his Kuwait annexation and the heavy price he paid for armed intervention against the Kurds, Mr. Saddam Hussein remains Iraq's hero. The growing Arab resentment of the perceived exploitative and divisive American role in the Gulf region can deny their support to Mr. Bush's plan to contain or dislodge the regime in Iraq.

C. R. Narayanan,

Cuddalore

Sir, - What is the United Nations doing about the unilateral decision of the United States to bomb Iraq to ``defend'' itself? This invocation by the U.S. of ``defence'' is surreal and Orwellian when you reckon that the U.S./ U.K. bombers intrude into the territory of a sovereign nation and claim the fear of attack from the legitimate rulers of the country and rain bombs on it. Contrast this with the law in some of the States in the U.S. If any intruder were to be found loitering on the lawn of your house you can shoot him dead and no case will be registered against you.

We had a Secretary-General who was autonomous, when Mr. Boutros- Boutros Ghali (an Egyptian) adorned the post, for the first and perhaps the last time in U.N. history. He was unceremoniously booted out after his first term even when 14 member-nations in the Security Council voted ``aye'' with one ``no''. In any democratic institution this would have meant that Mr. Ghali won.

The U.S. flagrantly flouted democratic traditions and vetoed the resolution proposing Mr. Ghali's name. And he quit. At his first election although the U.S. did not exhibit the same aggressiveness it had nevertheless abstained from voting, underscoring its clear if understated opposition to the candidature of Mr. Ghali.

What right does the U.S. have to preach on absence of democracy in Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba and impose sanctions when it undermines it in the world body? As for the U.K., it is not surprising it has become the Rottweiler doing the bidding of its master, the U.S.

Ramachandran Rajaraman,

Texas, U.S.

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