Sir, The Prime Minister’s mauling of Charles Kennedy at Prime Minister’s Questions last week on justification for the war on Iraq was long overdue. For months we have had the antiwar lobby seizing on every new fact that has emerged in the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) saga as justification for their opposition to the conflict.

Now that the Iraq Survey Group has delivered its final report (details, October 7), we can at last examine the situation that would now prevail if Charles Kennedy, Robin Cook et al had had their way in March 2003.

The inspectors (who were only in Iraq as a result of massive US-UK troop deployment) would have had more time to allow Saddam to demonstrate his compliance with United Nations resolutions. This, we now know, he would have been able to do. What Hans Blix would not have discovered, however, was Saddam’s intention to continue to develop WMD once sanctions were lifted.

Thus we would now have Saddam in power, the UN satisfied, and every prospect of oil revenues in full flow to fund WMD production along with the means of their long-range delivery.

Yours faithfully,
RON OSMOND,
56 Stoneygate Drive,
Hinckley, Leicestershire LE10 1DT.
October 18.

From Mr Andrew Weaver

Sir, The article by Gerard Baker (Comment, October 14) advocating war on the cynical Left is yet another dispiriting articulation of the “with us or against us” mentality. I view myself as a liberal democrat and believe that the military operation in Afghanistan was right, and that the recent elections were an astonishing achievement.

Do I then have to accept that the war in Iraq was justified? Going into Iraq has been a disastrous diversion from the War on Terror and the British public were woefully misled about the reasons for going to war. Such dishonesty is a poor example of democracy at work, but that does not mean that we give up the fight to apply it as fairly as possible.

Yours faithfully,
ANDREW WEAVER,
Flat 12,
57 Crouch Hill, N4 4AL.
actweaver2002@yahoo.co.uk
October 14.

From Professor Raj Bhopal

Sir, In December 2002 the Iraqi Government delivered a 12,000-page dossier to the United Nations. A US official described the omissions in the dossier as “big enough to drive a tank through” (report, December 14, 2002). The Iraqis, naturally, denied this.

Was this the only dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction that was true?

Yours faithfully,
RAJ BHOPAL,
6 East Castle Road,
Edinburgh EH10 5AR.
rbhopal@doctors.org.uk
October 19.

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