Madam, - Let us not forget the courage shown in the Iraq war by members of the Irish Guards regiment, many of whom come from the Republic. - Yours, etc.,
SIMON KING, Marlborough Road, Oxford OX1 4LT.
Madam, - How apt it is that Senator Norris (April 2nd) should pose for the Taoiseach and others the profound question which he does regarding the deaths of Iraqi children and the contribution to this of our coalition policy.
His question echoes one posed by Sir Edward Carson in the early years of the last century. Having questioned a chocolate manufacturer who claimed to be adverse to slavery and who presented an image of providing jobs for happy workers, Carson obtained an admission that the manufacturer in question procured over a period of eight years substantial supplies of cocoa required for his business knowing well that they derived from the labour of slaves many of whom were murdered or died in the process.
In concluding Carson asked the manufacturer "Have you formed an estimation of the number of slaves who lost their lives in preparing your cocoa during those eight years?"
No satisfactory answer could then be given to Carson's question and I suggest that none can be given now to that posed by Senator Norris.
In this country we have troubled ourselves greatly on issues including divorce, abortion, contraception and smoking in pubs but no member of our coalition seems to have been troubled at all about the question posed by Senator Norris and certainly not to the extent of taking a real stand on it.
It seems insulting to the people of this state to be asked to swallow the theory that: a) this state should be neutral in the face of a killing campaign, devoid of moral or legal basis, and involving the use of weapons of mass destruction, conducted by the coalition against the people of Iraq, and b) while aiding and abetting that killing campaign, we are in fact neutral. Yours, etc.
JUSTIN SADLEIR, Crow Street, Gort, Co Galway.
Madam, - Watching soldiers patrolling Iraq wearing berets instead of helmets to obtain "hearts and minds" I find a typical Iraq response would probably be "Appreciate the gesture lads, but don't really mind the helmets. Any chance of putting away the tanks and guns?" - Yours, etc.,
NIRESH MOODLEY, Portmarnock Rise, Co Dublin.