THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT WAS most illuminating to read the contribution of Dr. Alan Eyre on June 29, 2003. It makes me sad to note that history was indeed repeating itself in Iraq and that 19th and 20th century colonialism was alive and well in this post-modern world.
Happily the technological age has been interposed, allowing for instant communication, an exposé of events as they happen on the ground, and an opportunity to assess and appraise the news reports and analyses from the major western radio and TV sources.
Regrettably, modern diplomacy as practised by the US and Great Britain in the Iraqi war still serves to embrace the old paradigms of deceit, prefabricated intrigue and transparent hypocrisy: a reprehensible combination when mixed with a little good, old lime, gunboat diplomacy. Dr. Eyre's article speaks meaningfully to these points.
My interest in Iraq goes back to the years of my postgraduate studies in London, when I had the opportunity to interact with many mature students from that country. To a people with an ancient civilisation, culture and systems, long predating the Druids, the Tudors and Lancastrians of English history, the British occupation and colonisation was most unwelcomed and deeply resented. There were also agents, then, infiltrating that student body for use in softening up the underbelly of the Soviet Union. It will be recalled that the Cold War was on and that Britain had successfully engineered the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel.
Whatever Saddam's faults and in these days, there is a new science of demonising the enemy there is abundant evidence that he moved Iraq from a backward, barefoot society, a la Jamaica of the 1920s and '30s, to a country with modern highways, schools, hospitals, and "stability", giving the Iraqis a renewed sense of nationhood and self-worth.
Jamaican engineers and other professionals, who worked in Iraq, can substantiate this. "Fish and chips" and "hot dogs" are not appropriate for every palate and historic setting. Tito's disappearance from Yugoslavia should teach the West a few lessons. Dr. Eyre's article ought to be prescribed reading in the Washington Post and the London Times.
I am, etc.,
JOHN A.S. HALL
Medical Associates Hospital
Kingston 10
