I COULD not read the letter by Kel Ryan (CL 2/3/03) without feeling a sense of revulsion for his views which show no understanding or compassion for human life and which show no understanding of why conflicts occur between nations.
The fact that the he was a former RSL state vice-president would probably give him an insight into the horrors of war but any lessons learnt have certainly been forgotten. His letter is critical of those wanting peace and justice for all, and because their views differ from his, they are deemed to be ‘meaningless personal views’.
Who says the USA is right in this conflict anyway? Was it right in attacking or bombing (since the Second World War) Lebanon, Venezuela, Haiti, Grenada, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Libya, Iraq, Somali and the Balkans? In hindsight, how many millions of casualties have occurred and what difference have the attacks made.
Now the USA wants to do Iraq again and then maybe take on North Korea. Do not make the mistake that ‘Truth, justice and the American way’ have anything to do with the Iraqi crisis. It’s more power for the most powerful nation on earth. The price will be thousands of children and their parents, and the USA and its allies do not seem to care.
Fifty-five per cent of people polled recently in the European Foreign Policy magazine ‘believed that American foreign policy was in some way to blame for the September 11 attacks’ (The Diplomat, December 2002).
There are two sides to every story and instead of agreeing with the US propaganda backed by John Howard, we should seek the truth to hopefully make a difference for good and love in this world. Isn’t that what Christ taught?
GERARD M. WILKES
Southport, Qld
