The Hindu : Catastrophic war

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 01, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Catastrophic war

Sir, — The Iraqi war threatens to go out of hand and seems set to impose a catastrophe on humanity. The objectives of the war may be achieved, but the after-effects on account of the means adopted portend a certain defeat of the objectives of mankind. The suicide bomb attack on a military outpost is a chilling trailer for what is in store in that region.

The coalition will be left to fight battles later. This will legitimise terrorism against which world opinion has crystallised. The war is likely to see not the end of terrorism but the end of the legitimacy of the war against terrorism.

S. Sundararaman,
Coonoor, T.N.

Sir, — The U.N. is teetering on its foundations, thanks to a propaganda bombardment calling in question its very reason for existence. Robert Perle, adviser to George Bush, has predicted that the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq will collapse, bringing the U.N. down with it. Unwilling to censure Israel for its multiple U.N. resolution violations, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, sheds crocodile tears over the Palestinians' plight.

This is while both the U.S. and the U.K.are raining bombs on Iraqi people, on the pretext of `liberating' them, and to punish the Saddam Hussein regime for allegedly hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Don't the much-flaunted precision hi-tech fighting gadgets of the `coalition forces' come under the label of WMD? The Iraqis will certainly fight for their homes with all that they have, including any WMD, all of which were sold to them by Western countries.

Vasantha Surya,
Chennai

Sir, — Through a number of articles, scholars have written the obituary of the U.N., but few have talked about the decline of the United States.

For the first time the U.S. has lost its moral authority, its diplomacy has faced a severe jolt, world opinion stands against it and the American way of life has been questioned. Interestingly, the same person is responsible for the decline of both the U.S. and the U.N.

Rajnish Jha,
New Delhi

Sir, — Rammanohar Reddy in his article ` Making of a catastrophe ' (March 29) produces the remarkable achievement of reviewing the Iraqi situation of the last two decades without acknowledging that Iraq alone was responsible for the wars against Iran and Kuwait. One cannot blame the U.S. for what were acts of the Iraqi Government which caused lakhs of deaths. Iranians consider Saddam Hussein responsible for the death of more number of people than anyone else alive and rightly so.

U.N. sanctions — unjustified in their severity — have been reaffirmed by the Security Council every six months making at least 60 nations involved in these votes party to the sufferings of the Iraqi people. These nations, including the P-5, have opposed the U.S. without pleading that sanctions be mitigated, if not removed. There is plenty of blame to be shared.

G.S. Iyer,
New Delhi

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