Madam, - Your report (July 20th) that 25,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the two years since the invasion by US-led forces reflects the grim human cost of this military venture.
One of the saddest aspects has been that the occupation is exacerbating the conflict between religious and ethnic communities, dividing rather than uniting the country. Another is that the conflict has become a universal rather than a particular tragedy, spreading like a plague affecting the daily lives of innocent people worldwide.
When is it going to dawn on Bush and Blair that western style democracy cannot be imposed on a Muslim society based on a different culture and tradition? Who, we are entitled to ask, are the fundamentalists - those trying to impose democracy based on the American Constitution or those hell-bent on transforming Iraq into an Iranian-style Shia theocracy?
I support your Editorial call for an agreed timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops to stop the drift into civil war. - Yours, etc,
JOHN F. FALLON,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.