Sir, - John de Courcy Ireland's latest letter (December 8th) on US interventions in the world's trouble spots is as intemperate, unbalanced and ideologically skewed as his first.
He takes me to task for my naivety. If not exhibiting his form of knowing distrust of any magnanimous act is naivety, so be it. I am not, however, altogether an innocent at large when it comes to US aid programs. During the late 1960s I spent 18 months working with an American group of advisers in a populous Asian country. We were not trying to sell them a bill of goods. The only considerations guiding our advice were the best interests of the client country. I wish I could say the same of all other countries with advisers in the field at that time.
It was an exciting period. American-sponsored plant-breeding programs had developed new higher yielding wheat and rice varieties. These were spearheading the "green revolution", bringing hope to developing countries and the prospect of ending their reliance upon imports of American grain. There must surely have been some devilish self-interest behind this American initiative but, for the life of me, I'm too naive to spot it.
Dr de Courcy Ireland and Robert Fisk are quick to attribute a reported increase in cancer cases among children in southern Iraq to the fact that the US and the UK used armour-piercing shells, and not powder puffs, to eject an invading army from Kuwait. They could well be over-hasty in discarding other possible contributing factors. Saddam's firing of the oil wells and his wanton oil discharges into the Gulf waters may also have played a part. Even if Fisk's assertion were correct, it would not invalidate my use of the term "inadvertent" to describe such consequences of military operations.
When US actions on the world stage come to be judged, a little more fairness would be welcome. I don't see the French being accused of cannibalism because they once had truck with Bokassa. Yet John de Courcy Ireland tends to hold the US responsible for every evil act subsequently committed by governments it once aided or befriended. - Yours, etc., Jack Lewis,
Coliemore Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.