Istanbul bombs, Bush protests and others

Istanbul bombs bring home our tolerance of oppression

Sir: It was predicted that Britain would become a target for terrorists because of its involvement in Iraq. The price of taking on terrorists on their terms is now also clear. A war is exactly what they wanted. Every move made against al-Qa'ida will be capitalised on to draw new recruits. But what do you do with a lethal enemy that draws strength from your attacks?

The only way is to negate the reasons for Arab and Muslim distrust and dislike for the West and the USA, the distrust and dislike that has been turned into murderous hatred. We need to grant the Palestinians their rights as humans. We need to convince the Saudi royal family to loosen their grip on the Kingdom, and instigate real social and democratic reforms.

There need to be reforms all over the Middle East. Social order based on fear can never be sustainable. The lack of popular representation in the region has led to rich pickings for Al-Qa'ida. Ultimately, in curing the rot that feeds the roots of the terrorists' networks, the USA and its allies will effectively be granting al-Qa'ida some if their demands. Palestinian statehood is high on their wish list.

Rather than "I told you so," we can only say "If only"; if only we had acted before to promote justice and freedom in the countries we deal with. We have now been cursed by our wilful tolerance of hypocrisy and oppression: cursed to see our soldiers die in Iraq, cursed to see our diplomats and businessmen murdered, and cursed to have our call to finally do some good catalysed by those who want to destroy us.

FLORIS VERMEULEN
Sevenoaks, Kent

Sir: In the wake of the car bombs in Istanbul, each side is confirmed in its entrenched position. For Bush and Blair it is evidence of the need for their war on terror. For the protesters it is evidence that the war isn't working and is only escalating the problem. Evangelical levels of rhetoric and blame permeate both stances. What we don't have is any objective analysis of cause and effect that can offer a convincing strategy to combat terror and the causes of terror. Never mind the savage indignation - how about some joined-up thinking?

JANE GERSON
Winchester

Bush protest sends wrong message

Sir: The "anti-war" marchers wonder whether Mr Bush has listened to their protest: we can be sure that the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam's regime have, at least. Their marching only encourages terrorists to hope that more atrocities will lead to increased domestic pressure on our leaders and eventually to Anglo-American capitulation.

The British and American people are well aware of the blood price for democracy. Peace-keeping in Ireland reminds us that resisting extremists and preventing chaos is usually a thankless task. However, our noble servicemen and women are fighting for the establishment of a foothold for democracy in the Middle East - perhaps the greatest chance for world peace that we have. Democracy leads to prosperity and we all know that extremism and especially terrorism is bad for business.

R GRANT
Preston Bagot, Warwickshire

Sir: How has Rick Clough (letter, 20 November) the effrontery to say: "I pray that Londoners never have to go through what New Yorkers have been through"? Within living memory Londoners have been through a larger ordeal lasting longer, causing more devastation and killing more people. The United States came galloping to the rescue a bit late, and were the only people who came out of the world wars better off.

If President Bush bothered to secure the support of the United Nations for his activities he would be welcomed in Britain.

Dr W R P BOURNE
Dufftown by Keith, Aberdeenshire

Sir: Rick Clough asks, "How would Ken Livingstone feel if the terrorists flew their planes into buildings in London?" Well maybe he could ask the people of Warrington and Omagh, amongst others, who have all suffered terrorist attacks, though not of the same magnitude as New York.

Why is it that there is no mention of the IRA when speaking of "terrorist atrocities"? Maybe because the victims were not North Americans and the acts were committed by a group considered by many North Americans to be freedom fighters.

VICTORIA ANDREW
Bolsover, Derbyshire

Sir: "There remains a bit of England in every American," says George W Bush. That would be the native Americans? Not to mention the Irish Americans, German Americans and African Americans (admittedly we moved a lot of them there). Incidentally, Dubya seems to be of the "Whereabouts in England are Scotland and Wales?" persuasion. What about the Scots and Welsh American votes - can he count on them now?

D J WALKER
Macclesfield, Cheshire

Slim hope for Iraq

Sir: Charles Glass (Opinion, 13 November) and Pete Riddick (letter, 15 November) have made the case for and against similarities between Iraq and Vietnam.

Both are right in that there are both parallels and differences. Every situation is unique - but there is one comparison that I have not yet seen drawn. An artificially created state, incorporating many different ethnic groups is united by a dictator. Upon Tito's demise, the Yugoslav Federation descended into the brutal civil war of the 1990s, including genocide, foreign intervention, terrorism and guerrilla warfare.

Iraq is similarly made up of a plethora of different ethnic groups - Shia, Sunni, Kurds, Bedouins, Turkmens, Yazidis - and has been held together for the last three decades only by the power of a totalitarian dictator.

The attack on the Shia mosque at Najaf in August hints at the direction to which Iraq could turn. A decade or more of "ethnic cleansing" and civil war is, to my mind, at least as, if not more, frightening than a new Vietnam.

JOHN GOSS
Pembroke College
Cambridge

Sir: Professor Mark Mazower has written an article ("Democracy in the Middle East won't favour the US", 10 November) which all but ignores the fact that democracy in the Middle East cannot take root without democratic institutions. Democratic institutions - political parties devoted to non-violent change, a non-partisan civil service, an independent judiciary, a free and responsible press - are essential ingredients without which democracy cannot function. For a democratic model for the Middle East, a look at India may be in order.

India is a poor Third World country with a billion-plus impoverished people divided by religion, language and ethnicity, and yet India has remained democratic since its inception as an independent country. This has been mainly due to its long association with Britain as a colonial power.

When Britain left India, it left behind democratic institutions such as political parties, a professional civil service, a modern army, an independent judicial system, and a relatively free press which provided the basic foundation of democracy.

If India, which has been rocked with religious and ethnic conflicts of the worst kinds, can be democratic, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, with far less diversity, can be democratic as well provided these democratic institutions can be established. Like India, Iraq has a well-educated middle class capable of running the country. But decades of brutal tyranny under Saddam Hussein has destroyed all democratic institutions in the country. The US, like Britain in India, will have to stay in Iraq for a long time to nurture the institutions needed to sustain any democratic governance.

Though the US does not want to become a colonial power in Iraq, it can learn some lessons from the British rule in India.

MAHMOOD ELAHI
Ottawa, Canada

Circulation wars

Sir: Donald Trelford is right about the tensions that accompanied the acquisition of The Observer by The Guardian in 1993, though they were not always the ones he identifies. ("Weekly drama", 18 November).

But he can hardly claim that Observer sales were "crashing" and losses were "mounting ever higher" when it was named newspaper of the year six months after the takeover. On the contrary, circulation, which had been falling steadily round the time the paper changed hands, was stabilised, and then rose back to the half-million mark and above. As for the losses, they were being cut to half the previous level.

Mr Trelford also names two star writers he says were forced to move elsewhere by the way the takeover was managed - both made it clear at the time that they left because of offers from rival papers which they knew I was in no position to match.

JONATHAN FENBY
(Editor, The Observer 1993-5)
London WC1

Vote for England

Sir: Whether one approves or not of the Government's majority in the vote on foundation hospitals, the means of this victory are to be deplored. Scottish Labour MPs (including the Health Secretary) supporting the bill will have swung it, although their constituencies will not be affected. Had the vote been restricted to England and Wales, things might have been different. This shows once again that what is needed is an English Parliament. That's the way they do it in Scotland, isn't it?

MIKE ROGERS
Sevenoaks, Kent

Victorian schism

Sir: Stephen Bayley ("Self-preservation society?", 19 November) seems to have muddled by association two very different elements of 19th-century church life: "muscular Christians of the Oxford Movement"? I think not.

RICHARD STOREY
Kenilworth, Warwickshire

Sex education

Sir: Angela Lambert (Opinion, 20 November) says parents should give children "accurate, unembarrassed non-judgmental information about sex behaviour." That's not enough: parents should guide as well as inform. I said to my teenage children that the old system of morals no longer worked and, as you can't live without rules, we needed a new one. On sex I suggested they didn't sleep with anyone with whom, even in theory, they couldn't envisage producing a child. At the least it would save them a lot of trouble. That was 30 years ago, and seems to have worked rather well.

Professor GEORGE SOLT
Olney, Buckinghamshire

Wartime wisdom

Sir: John Lichfield seems to have hold of the wrong end of the doodlebug if he believes Londoners prayed that the engine would cut out ("The man who saved London", 20 November). My understanding is that they prayed that the engine would keep going, at least until the engine-note dropped in pitch, indicating that the the threat had passed over them.

JAMES SYKES
Cheadle, Greater Manchester