In her insightful article : { "Iraq's twisted British roots" Jan. 23}, Margaret MacMillan gave an accurate account of the British colonial role in the genesis of today's conflicts in the area. She also stated : " The British used airplanes....to bomb civilian targets." They did a little more than that . Like Saddam bombers, the squadrons of the RAF used poison gas against the Kurdish rebels. Sir Aylmer Haldane, commander of British forces, stated proudly that the British army used gas shells " with excellent moral effect" [ " British bombing when the natives were restless" by David Omissi,Guardian Weekly, Feb. 3,1991.] The rebellion was crushed with the loss of 9000 Arab lives. Winston Churchill, Colonial Secretary, in 1921, "consistently urged that the RAF should use mustard gas during these raids, despite the warning by one of his advisers that 'it may... kill children and sickly persons."[see above source]. Churchill rejected timid naysayers : " I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas against uncivilised tribes....it is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses; gasses can be used which would cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would have no serious permanent effects on most of those affected." Chemical weapons, Churchill concluded, represent "the application of Western science to modern warfare....We cannot in any circumstance acquiesce in the non-utilisation of any weapons which are available to procure a speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the frontier." ["Beat The Devil: The Press and the Just War" by Alexander Cockburn, The Nation, Feb. 18,1991].