War costs
From Mr Alexander Sinclair Sir: Mark Steyn ('Put up or shut up', 5 October) writes with characteristic wit and verve; but he glosses over certain fundamental points.
Mr Steyn states, 'War for the United States now comes with no human cost'; but what he means, of course, is that 'war now comes with no human cost for the United States'. There is no difference between these assertions if value is placed merely on the lives of citizens of the United States; but I doubt that the entirety of the 'anti-war crowd' to whom he refers care to make that particular presumption.
Mr Steyn is unarnused by certain comparisons between Mr George W. Bush. President of the United States, and the President of Iraq, Mr Saddam Hussein; but what is certain is that the people of Iraq lie under considerably more threat from their United States counterparts than vice versa.
Many 'Europeans' whom I know agree with Mr Steyn about the desirability of removing unpleasant foreign governments, or removing hostile foreign governments, or the accessibility of oil at certain prices; but they retain an interest in other matters: for instance, the political stability of the Middle East, or the intrinsic value of international law, or the lives of people who are not citizens of the United States.
Alexander Sinclair
al_sinclair@hotmail.com
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