I AM glad that Bolton MP Dr Brian Iddon (BEN, September 17) is rather less hawkish in the present crisis than the Prime Minister.

One must be thankful for small mercies. But he still believes that the use of force is justified.

I do not. Indeed I think that is morally obscene that any western country, let alone a combination of them should ever dream of attacking the people of one of the poorest countries on earth, which has already been ravaged by 20 years of war.

One does not have to be a pacifist, though I am one, to ask what exactly is the basis in international law for attempting to seize a foreign national by force. The normal procedure is, surely, to apply to the country concerned for the wanted person to be extradited.

In the era of IRA violence, Irish courts sometimes refused to extradite an Irishman wanted in connection with bombing. But that would not have justified sending snatch squads in or bombing Dublin. Even if Bin Laden is seized by such a squad without loss of life, that would be mere vigilantism.

Terrorism is merely a form of war, just as war is a form of terrorism, and both should be judged in the same way. However terrible and atrocious the attack on the innocent citizens of New York was, it was not as terrible and atrocious as the attacks on Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet they are not even treated as war crimes, nor has anybody been prosecuted in connection with them.

The bombing of New York, like the bombing of Nagasaki, may have been a crime against humanity, but like the latter is perfectly explicable. Arab Moslems, if they stand in the way of western interests are regarded as expendable. I know this from experience. Since 1998, in conjunction with others, I have written letters, taken round petitions, seen local MPs, and even got myself arrested, in a futile effort to try to obtain a change in western policy towards Iraq.

But the fact that over half a million children (UN figures) have died as a result of sanctions ,and hundreds of civilians as a result of perpetual bombing is of little significance. Our lives are more important than theirs.

But understandably they do not see it that way. They regard themselves as human beings too. And two UN Humanitarian Co-ordinators have resigned because they agreed with them. And naturally their fellow Moslems, particularly if they are Arabs, agree with them too.

If we had treated the Iraqi people decently, perhaps the dreadful events of September 11 would not have occurred. But we never learn, and are now getting ready to bomb the Afghans. We are all set to make Bin Laden a martyr. In death he will have even greater influence.

Malcolm Pittock

St James Avenue

Breightmet, Bolton