Bomber astronaut did the world a favour

CONTRARY to what JA Barnwell claimed in his letter (Irish Examiner, Feb 13), the Israeli astronaut who died on the shuttle Columbia did not bomb Baghdad in 1981: he bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor which the French were so kindly building for Saddam Hussein.

And thank God he did.

If that reactor had not been bombed, Saddam would have had nuclear weapons years ago and the Middle East, and indeed the world, would be a very different place.