BEFORE adding to the sum of human misery by attacking Iraq, perhaps Messrs Bush and Blair should refresh their memories about the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction and the Law of the Opposite Effect.
Any attack on a country armed with weapons of mass destruction would provoke the use of those weapons. It would not therefore be sensible to attack such a country.
As President Bush seems determined to make an attack on Iraq it must follow that he must be certain that those weapons do not, in practical terms, exist in Iraq. If so, the need for the current policy becomes obscure and runs into the Law of the Opposite Effect.
Pursuing one?s aim by military means can have unfortunate consequences (eg Vietnam).
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In this case they would and perhaps already have incurred the dislike, if not enmity, of a large part of the Arab and Muslim world; increased support for al-Qaida and pinpricks of terrorism imposing disproportionate defensive policies. Very much the opposite effect to that desired.
A R Cole
17 Deer Park Crescent
Tavistock