Sir, - If the UK government had evidence that a car-bomb was being prepared in some small town in the Republic of Ireland for use in a small town in Northern Ireland, would it send an RAF bomber squadron to destroy the house where this bomb was being made ready for use? It is much more likely that it would communicate with the Irish Government so that the security forces in the Republic could obtain a search warrant from the judicial authority to search for and seize the explosives.
If such is the likely response of the UK government, it is most strange that it should support the action of the US president in ordering the bombing of a factory in Khartoum. Whatever about the turmoil at present in Afghanistan, there was a legitimate government in Khartoum with its own judicial and security systems to deal with such a matter. - Yours, etc.,
Frank Murphy,
Old Quarry,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.