Madam, - Charles Krauthammer has excelled himself this week, weaving North Korea, Iran and Syria together with evidence he rather generously describes as "circumstantial" (Opinion, September 24th). Citing the obligatory anonymous US official, Krauthammer argues the possibility that North Korea is aiding a Syrian nuclear program.
This sounds rather like the fabricated story about uranium yellowcake from Niger in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. Indeed, before that war, Krauthammer himself wrote: "Time is running short. Saddam has weapons of mass destruction. He is working on nuclear weapons. And he has every incentive to pass them on to terrorists who will use them against us." Why should we trust his analysis now?
It seems highly unlikely that North Korea would risk transporting nuclear materials directly to Syria, particularly in a ship carrying a North Korean flag - missile technology, perhaps, but that is of course less dramatic.
Krauthammer then convicts Iran by association with Syria, and takes as given the White House line that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, whereas just last week Mohamed El Baradei of the IAEA said: "We have not seen any undeclared facilities operating in Iran. We have not seen any concrete evidence that the Iran programme is being weaponised".
It is a truism that if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it - but surely not so soon! - Yours, etc,
MATT DAVEY, Lombard Street West, Dublin 8.