Madam, - Your Editorial of September 22nd says Britain must soon decide whether to agree a timetable for scaling down or withdrawing its troops from Iraq - a decision that should equally apply to the US.
However, Britain is reported to be preparing to send its 7th armoured brigade to Iraq as both invading forces can continually give further reasons to remain in Iraq - the October 15th constitutional referendum, the December 15th general elections, etc.
This reluctance of both Britain and the US to disengage from Iraq, together with a build-up of US nuclear naval forces in the Persian Gulf, can readily be linked to the increasing and very worrying aggressive rhetoric of the US State Department and the US ambassador to Iraq against Syria and especially against Iran.
We know from leaked British secret memorandums that the decision to invade Iraq was taken while the rest of the world believed that diplomacy was to be allowed to stop the ill-fated attack.
Let us hope that Britain and the US will not be so stupid as to further endanger what remains of world peace by attacking Iran. - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
NGO Peace Alliance,
Dublin 7.