David MacNab's pathetic attempt to legitimise the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq is hard to believe. To dismiss the total failure of finding weapons of mass destruction, and the subsequent invasion as academic is an act of historical assassination.

His letter is so full of false assumptions it makes it hard to take him seriously. He says that if Saddam was still in power that he would be heading up a nuclear Arab league against the West, an assumption with no basis. He then further assumes that the French Veto would have been because of France's Muslim element. Again, there is no factual basis for this wild guess. It is much more likely that Chirac knew the whole Middle East would become the recruiting ground for terrorism, and that Iraq would descend into chaos, both of which is what actually happened.

While regretting the loss of life during this unforgivable war and in no way impugning on our armed forces who only do as they are told, I cannot say their action in Iraq in any way served humanity.

He states that the stable regimes must monitor the unstable ones, if he thinks that President Bush was an example of stability during that time, I think he should look again. While recognising that religion is a factor in the travails of the Middle East, I feel that the real problem is Israel and America and the West's attitude towards it. While Israel is allowed to ignore UN resolutions regarding its illegal settlements in the West bank there will never be peace. It might help if we looked closer at the huge amount of lobbying that goes on in this country from Israeli pressure groups.

Ray Eves,

by email.