YOUR VIEWS

AS a U.K. national who has resided in the United States and has now made Majorca my home, I now add the Daily Bulletin to a long list of newspapers, whose reporting and editorials I enjoy to digest.

Whist I am not surprised by the many ‘Letters To The Editor', sent to the Daily Bulletin, in disagrement of Mr. Ray Fleming's opinions; I enjoy his columns.

However, on the topic of the Iraq invasion and subsequent war, this is a subject that I find is always discussed with far too much bias and always argued with points that are just too simplistic. For those who said the war was all about oil, that has been disproved since Iraq was always to benefit and be rebuilt from its own oil revenues. For those who said that the U.K. ‘shouldn't have ever been involved', are they not aware that it was the British Empire, after the WW1 that divided that region into the quagmire that followed, and during the 1980's it was the U.S. and U.K.governments that supported Saddam Hussein?

But, the one argument that as far as I am concerned can not be disagreed with, is that the United Nations failed to execute its mandate, and because of that I blame the war on that bloated, self serving, corrupt institution.

Saddam Hussein spent at least 11 years failing to comply properly with weapons inspectors after his illegal invasion of Kuwait and subsequent surrender. After 11 years of pretending Iraq had something to hide, Saddam Hussien was not intimidated by sanctions and threats of force. It was the Iraqi people that suffered, not his regime.

Russia and China, in particular, used their security council votes for national interest when some form of political cohesion could have prevented war. Saddam was given 24 hours to leave the country before the invasion. He ignored the impending military action because he didn't believe that the international community would allow the war.

We constantly speak about the ‘bad intelligence' regarding weapons of mass destruction. Well, had the U.N. inspectors been able to do their job and prove that there were no weapons there would have been no doubts, and no case for war! In the end, Saddam Hussein called the bluff of the International Community one too many times. There was a price to pay for that, unfortunately every country involved paid the price. Shame on the United Nations! Yours sincerely,

N. Findly, Alcudia, Majorca.