I wish to comment o­n the letter by Beram Kumar's ' War a necessary evil '. This is unacceptable to me. Evil can never be a necessity. There is no difference between the mentality of those who perpetuated Sept 11 and those who wish to drop bombs o­n the people of Iraq. How does o­ne justify war o­n Iraq?

Is Saddam Hussein 100 percent to blame for lack of food, medicine and sanitation in Iraq? What about vaccines and antibiotics which have been banned because they have dual use (can be used as medicine or made into biological weapons)? What about the outbreak of diseases in Iraq because they are not allowed to import pipes to repair the sewage system because such pipes may have dual use (can be used for gun-barrels, etc).

Where were the pro-Iraq war advocates when the Kurdish community was being sprayed by mustard gas in 1988? Why was Slobodan Milosevic allowed to promote "ethnic cleansing and rape" in Bosnia and nobody did anything at the height of the Bosnian people's suffering. Then many years later the US-led Nato bombed Yugoslavia to remove Milosevic. Was Yugoslavia bombed because of the crimes committed by the Serbs or because the Serbs were helping Iraq build "cruise missiles"? o­nce again the world is being duped by lies and deceptions.

The fact is that the would-be war against Iraq has nothing to do with helping the Kurdish community in Iraq or even the average man in Baghdad. The removal of Saddam will just be replaced by another cruel dictator o­nly this time more subservient to American interests. The Kurds will never taste freedom and no democracy is in store for the unfortunate Iraqi people.