Fanatics solely to blame for 9/11 terror attacks

PARDON me if I refrain from joining Michael Job (Letters, July 22) when he congratulates you for your “courage” in criticising certain aspects of US policy with respect to the Iraq war because no courage is required in so doing.

Incredibly, he states that the US “only has itself to blame” for the attack on the World Trade Centre.

Is Mr Job so prejudiced against the US that he is unable see that responsibility for this attack lies solely with the fanatics who carried it out?

President Bush has had many false charges levelled against him in the past eight years. But to accuse him of having us believe that people “undertake suicide attacks for fun” certainly reaches a new low. Perhaps I missed that particular press conference?

Mr Job describes the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as “atrocities.” The invasion of Afghanistan was warranted as a direct response to the attack on the Twin Towers. And now, after five difficult years, the people of Iraq have at least the possibility of freedom and democratic rule as a direct result of US actions in their country.

What was Iraq’s future before the “atrocity” of the US invasion? Indefinite fear and horror under a vicious dictator who was most likely to be succeeded by his even more vicious and brutal sons.

As for Mr Job’s reference to the “principled defenders” of their homeland, I don’t see anything principled about

Al Qaeda’s deliberate targeting of civilians and sundry beheadings, which has been their modus operandi from the beginning.

The US-backed Iraqi army now numbers 350,000 soldiers who are the real “principled defenders” of their homeland. And yes, Mr Job, more and more Al Qaeda ‘martyrs’ are being created as a result.

That is usually what happens to the enemy when a war is being prosecuted with some degree of success, as is now the case in Iraq.

Incidentally, according to a July 5

Associated Press report, the US removed 550 metric tons of concentrated natural uranium from Iraq over the previous month.

Now, I don’t know about Mr Job, but dare I say this sounds suspiciously like the material for weapons of mass destruction that harmless old Saddam didn’t possess?

James McGrath

Birchgrove

Hollyford

Co Tipperary