Frankham,

Thanks for posting the letter - it made interesting reading - pretty much one-sided reading - also fairly confused.

My reason for saying so are:

1. The author sems to think that the United States Government controls the UN and dictates policy to the UNSC - we all know from recent times that that is not the case. The United States of America had to be brutally blunt to the United Nations just to get it to face up to its responsibilities - which fortunately they did manage in part to do.

2. The sanctions, and effect of sanctions, constantly referred to in the letter could have been removed instantly had Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist Regime co-operated with the UNSCOM and IAEA inspection teams. The sanctions would have been lifted had Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist Regime honoured its obligations to the United Nations under the terms of the resolutions it accepted (matter of record).

3. Use of DU ammunition in the conflicts referred to in the letter. Mention is made of bombs and missiles - while they may exist - the mass of DU munitions used was in the form of 30mm cannon shells, used against tanks and armour.

4. The impression given in the letter is at odds with the fact that the population of Iraq has grown from 18.8 million to just over 23 million in the period we are talking about. (for comparison the population of Germany roughly remained static - marginal increase).

5. No mention of repression, the letter is aimed entirely at the USA. Does that mean that there is no repression? If so it flies in the face of the bulk of eye witness statements made by the thousands of refugees who have fled from Iraq over the past 12 years.

Sorry, too one-sided to present any sort of basis for objectivity - pure propaganda.

On another subject - a large number of the Human Shields are quitting Iraq for Jordan. They wanted to protect schools, hospitals and mosques - the Iraqi authorities apparently will not let them do that - wonder why? Would all those foreigners notice an unnatural military presence? Would they notice certain high security areas? No-go areas within those facilities? Would they notice the close proximity of what could be termed as legitimate military targets?