In your editorial:{"Echoes of war" March 19}, you are indulging in a facile twisted logic to justify the Bush invasion of Iraq. The reasons, Bush and Blair, gave were the impending threat of Saddam's attack with weapons of mass destruction [WMD], in 45 minutes, against the US and Britain, as well as his direct linkage to Bin Laden and the 9/11 terrorist attack. These justifications were seen, before the war and since, by the vast majority of the peoples and governments of the world, to be a big lie.

You proceed to justify the war by the facile argument that the Iraqis are better off. The 1.5 million Iraqis, killied by starvation and disease, thanks to the sanctions imposed by the US and UK, as well as the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and injured since last tear's war, can hardly be a testimony to this betterment. You speak of Iraqi violations of the 1991 ceasefire as an adequate justification for this war. Dare we suggest that you and Mr. Bush call for similar action against Israel, which stands in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions, in maintaining its 37 year oppressive illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and maintaining its violation of all articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is tantamount to war crimes? The Palestinian people would be also better off.