Syria intervention is too little, too late – we should have acted months ago

The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. The Western alliance seem to have known the two sites that have been bombed were producing and stockpiling chemical weapons. Why did they not have them inspected and destroyed months ago? A humanitarian approach would be to stop the illegal production, instead of waiting until the chemicals are used to kill people and then act.

David Hyden
Wolverhampton

US, Britain and France have fallen into a trap. Syria’s insurgents have every incentive now to stage manage, however clumsily, one or more chemical attacks by the Syrian military, knowing that Washington will be obliged to unleash further and heavier air strikes. For Washington not to do so would undermine the veracity of the insurgents’ version of the Douma chemical attack. This is less a case of America First and more one of the tail wagging the dog. Mission accomplished!

Yugo Kovach
Dorset

Theresa May has placed our forces under the effective control of an erratic US President. She justifies her actions with the pre-democratic doctrine of royal prerogative. Yet it’s only legitimate for a prime minister to act without parliamentary endorsement when Britain is directly threatened and this was manifestly not the case. To participate in this act of puerile militaristic machismo was an abuse of her office.

Trump’s infantile tweet, taunting Russia to “get ready” for his missiles because “they will be coming, nice and new and smart” was almost beyond belief. For the de facto leader of the West to talk like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas not only brings the American democratic process into question but undermines the entire post-war geopolitical settlement, which was premised on law and rules-based international relations.

Rev John Cameron
St Andrews

The Grand National is not glorious, it’s appalling (The Grand National is a cruelty that should never have been allowed to happen).

This race is cruel and for some horses, it’s lethal. I find it absolutely unwatchable, as I couldn’t care less who wins the wretched thing and I am only hoping and praying each horse survives the gruelling ordeal. To watch horses being whipped at the end of four miles of extreme physical effort is absolutely sickening. I am shocked that so many people see it only in terms of what (often horrible) outfit they can wear to attend, or how much they can make out of a bet on this exploitative disgrace.

The nonsense peddled in favour of horse racing is that the horses love it or else they wouldn’t run. No, they run because they are herd animals whose instinct to run is fuelled by being a prey species in the natural world. It is the usual fiendish human talent for exploitation that makes the horses run such challenging courses, and underpins the whole bloated, money-based horse racing industry.

Penny Little
Oxfordshire

I agree with Umaar Kazmi (Letters) that communities like his should not have to hear the terrorising echoes of Enoch Powell’s words again. They can opt not to read the words, and they can opt not to listen to the words when they are rebroadcast. But the rest of us should have the option to hear this outpouring of racist venom and try to understand what a danger this attitude can still pose to efforts to improve diversity and tolerance.

Unlike Umaar, I was alive in 1968 and was acutely aware of the fear and loathing aroused by Powell and his fellow travellers. Time has not diminished the need to hear this vile message and to work against any resurrection of it by present-day fascists and racists. We do not defeat the aims of the likes of Mosley, Mussolini and Hitler by silencing them, for that would increase their fascination among their ill-advised admirers. Rather, we should continue to listen to and learn from the lessons of history.

Sam Boote
Nottingham

Ex-FBI head James Comey claims President Trump is “lying, scheming and demanding loyalty oaths from his subalterns regardless of morality”. So, like Nixon?

Mike Bor
London W2