THE EDITOR, Sir:
"THE MARCH of Folly", by Barbara W. Tuchman, popular American historian, is one of my favourite books. Written in impeccable prose it is an elegant and incisive commentary on several defining periods and events in history from the fall of Troy to the tragic-comic adventures of the United States in Vietnam. Running like a threat throughout all these episodes is the persistent and pervasive problem of folly in the use of political power.
The book, described by Newsweek as "An epic study of blundering statecraft" is perhaps more relevant today than when it was first published nearly 20 years ago. This is so particularly because of recent events in Iraq.
The antics of George Bush and his subaltern Tony Blair, drunk with power and the Holy Ghost, their contempt for the United Nations, their apparent use of deception and doctored intelligence to justify war, their attack on Iraq and the reverberations and consequences predictable and otherwise might eventually go down in history as the supreme manifestation of folly.
Saddam Hussein might have been guilty of many of the things of which he was accused, including supporting terrorism, but how does this justify the terroristic assault upon a largely innocent population which had been weakened by years of sanctions? And is democracy "imposed" by causing untold suffering and precipitating virtual anarchy and the spectre of civil war?
There will be no peace in Iraq until the United States and Britain leave. They must do so without delay and they should start paying compensation to the Iraqis before they go. Never was there a case more deserving of substantial and exemplary compensation and even criminal sanctions. The Iraqis must be given a chance to start rebuilding their country with the assistance of civilised countries and institutions.
History will not absolve Bush and Blair neither will God nor Allah.
I am, etc.,
BERESFORD HAY
