Letters: Moral implications of buildings

Sir: Was the article on modern Israeli architecture (11 February) the day after your report of the Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine meeting (10 February) coincidence or not? Either way it missed the point that some Israeli architects' designs are being used as political weapons by the current regime to build on the occupied territories.

It is not just a matter of aesthetic niceties. All buildings make political statements, from the Pyramids to the Parthenon, and from the Lloyds building to Ronan Point. But sometimes the intent is demonstrably blatant; all the Nazi death camps were designed by architects, for example. Surely all the APJP are asking for is that architects be aware of the moral and political implications of their work.

LOUIS HELLMAN

LONDON W3

Sir: Your report on Israel's architectural wonders was wonderful. Would you care to explain how I, a Palestinian, might be able to one day visit the country and see these modernist masterpieces? Might you also know who the architect behind the wall running through my hometown of Abu Dis on the West Bank, is? I feel there might have been a "communication problem" between said architect and the local population. Finally, have you ever considered the way in which modernist, European architecture brought by the boatload in the 20th century destroyed the integrity of places like Ain Hod, Haifa and Tiberias?

ABDULHADI W AYYAD

LONDON SW19

Sir: For decades the international community has failed to put any pressure on Israel to comply with international law on illegal settlements and human rights. Israel clearly intends to carry on in its path of non-compliance, so it is left to non-governmental bodies such as the APJP to register their disquiet at this blatant disregard in the only way open to them: boycott.

DINA TURNER

FARNHAM, SURREY

Abuse by troops is not 'the exception'

Sir: Once again Tony Blair's reflex response to accusations of brutality by British troops in Iraq is that this is an exception (report, 13 February). These are merely a few bad apples in an otherwise pure and untarnished barrel.

How long is this nonsense, which is an insult to the intelligence, going to go unchallenged by the media? Apart from anything else, it is an invitation to commit further atrocities, because it is based on the presumption that everything is alright and nothing needs to be changed.

The film of the army beatings clearly shows other soldiers going about their duty and ignoring the screams of the young Iraqis being beaten up. The beatings took place in full sight of both ordinary soldiers and officers. One can only assume that this was considered an everyday occurrence. Indeed all the evidence suggests that rather than rotten apples in the army barrel, it is the whole barrel which is rotten.

It was because the army top brass consciously sought to cover up for the actions of lower ranks that Lord Goldsmith has insisted that charges of ill-treatment of prisoners should be tried in civilian courts. When it was not possible to keep the lid on the ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians, the army staged court martials which were deliberately hamstrung by failing to contact witnesses or victims.

The history of previous British counter-insurgency campaigns in Malaya and Kenya reveals that the use of torture and ill-treatment was sanctioned at the highest levels. There is no reason to believe that anything has changed.

TONY GREENSTEIN

BRIGHTON

Sir: People do not like to admit it but the propensity for cruelty is in all of us, and it rises to the surface for many when they are given complete authority over other human beings. And this is not cynicism - just a sober understanding of how things are. Add the unique environment of war, in which culture, religion, race and ethnicity often separate troops from natives and abuses become the norm instead of the exception. These latest images, if genuine, are a cause of shame for all of us because again they show that barbaric and atrocious behaviour needs little help to flourish.

And they tell us exactly the same things the Abu Ghraib photos told us: that across the bleak landscape of the 21st century, in an age when sadism and torture have become themselves addictive forms of entertainment, it will take a long, long time before somebody comes us with a coherent plan for dealing with human nastiness in wartime.

DR GEORGE KASSIMERIS

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW IN CONFLICT STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON

Sir: I wouldn't have been surprised if the Quakers had issued the statement, "We condemn all acts of abuse and brutality" in respect of British soldiers facing allegations of brutality in Iraq. But this came from the Ministry of Defence, the department that is responsible for recruiting young people to train them to be, amongst other things, killers. You can't be more abusive or brutal than to take another human life.

Isn't it about time politicians and generals stopped throwing their arms up in the air in mock horror every time there is another revelation of soldiers doing what now comes naturally and stopped promulgating this illusion, for the benefit of the sensitive public, that our boys are able to switch from gentlemen to warriors at the drop of a hat? Warfare is a dirty business and someone's got to do it - perhaps?

GEOFF NAYLOR

EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE

Don't despair: the planet can be saved

Sir: Maybe a bit of alarmism about the impending climate chaos is justified in the hope of persuading governments to do something serious about it, but your headline and article "Global warming: passing the 'tipping point' " (11 February) are based on a serious misreading of the evidence.

Your assertions seem to be based in large part on Meinshausen's paper presented at Tony Blair's Exeter conference last March, which appears to have been misunderstood in several ways. Firstly, Meinshausen makes it clear that there are still huge uncertainties about this business - in particular, a two-degree rise by itself does not guarantee global disaster, it merely makes it quite likely. Meanwhile, temperature rises lag greenhouse-gas concentration rises by a good few years, giving time to react.

And most importantly, both in Meinshausen's paper and most probably in the real world, increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are reversible, at least for a while yet.

We can adopt sensible measures - which happen to be Green Party policy - on, amongst others, buildings insulation and other forms of energy conservation,transport, renewable energy generation and awareness raising. International cooperation based on the contraction and convergence scheme of allocating emissions rights fairly while ensuring an overall reduction must also play a vital role. Then there is a fighting chance of preserving a climate capable of sustaining civilisation.

TONY COOPER

GREEN PARTY CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY ADVISOR, LONDON N19

Sir: I read the report on how the global warming "tipping point" has "already been passed, with devastating consequences", and that some of the worst predicted effects "cannot now be avoided whatever we do" with growing alarm, before lapsing into a feeling of stoic fatalism, and began to think about ordering some of those cheap flights advertised in your travel section, before the oil runs out.

Then, further in the same report, I read that "we already have the technology to allow us to meet our growing need for energy while keeping a stable climate", and reverted to thinking that, however futile it seems, maybe I should be writing to government leaders and the CEOs of the global corporations that have the power to limit the consequences of global warming.

The doomsday scenarios may carry more dramatic impact, but they are entirely counter-productive. Perhaps it would be more prudent, if less newsworthy, to stress Professor Shine's view that there is "enormous uncertainty about the degree to which this is happening", and encourage governments to apply the precautionary principle, rather than generate such feelings of hopelessness. It's like being stuck in a lift with Dad's Army's Private "we're doomed" Frazer.

CHARLES HOPKINS

NORWICH

Sir: It would be wrong to conclude that there is nothing that we can now do about global warming. On the contrary, at Flight Pledge Union we believe that the most effective way to reduce our individual impact on the climate is to decide to limit our flights. We invite others who share this view to visit our website at www.flightpledge.org.uk.

JOHN VALENTINE

LONDON SW17

ID-card legislation

Sir: The ID card bill is further evidence that inadequate governments in a crisis always turn upon their own citizens. Our present Government cannot confront international terrorists, so it creates laws which criminalise the general public, to distract the electorate from the ineffectiveness of its own counter-terrorism measures. The government have tried this move before, blaming car crime on motorists who leave their cars unlocked and house crime on householders who fail to lock their doors. Our fault now, is that our existence gives cover to the terrorist.

MARTIN LONDON

DENBIGH, DENBIGHSHIRE

Smoking vs machine gun

Sir: You report that a statue of Walter Raleigh has been unveiled at his birthplace in Devon (10 February). Hiram Maxim, of machine-gun fame, was credited with preventing more men from dying of old age than anyone in his time. May I suggest that, had they been contemporaries, Sir Walter Raleigh would take the accolade for his introduction of tobacco into these islands. Some may even think that the £30,000 spent by British American Tobacco on the statue would have been better donated to cancer research.

JOHN WESTLAKE

TROWBRIDGE, WILTSHIRE

Cartoon atheists, please

Sir: Richard Ingrams (11 February) notes the tendency in our secular society to blame all the troubles of the world on religion. We see cartoons of Islam, Judaism, Christian fundamentalists and the Pope, but few of non-believers. Agnostics, like Lib Dems, are easily satirised as fence-sitters, atheists as nihilists. Where are the cartoons of non-believers trying to get their children into church schools, wearing crosses, marrying in church and celebrating Christmas?

JOSEPH PALLEY

RICHMOND, SURREY

Cheney the hunter

Sir: So Dick Cheney shoots a fellow hunter (report, 13 February). Will this be put down as "friendly fire" or "collateral damage"?

RUSS BAUGH

LONDON SW15

Sir: Given Dick Cheney's shooting skills, it is perhaps just as well that he managed to avoid the military draft during the Vietnam war.

JOHN O'DWYER

CLAYDON, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Sparrows in the Palace

Sir: Mr Little may have cracked the sparrow question (letter, 11 February). When Queen Victoria appealed, in desperation, to the Duke of Wellington for his advice on what to do about a huge plague of sparrows which were nesting in the Crystal Palace, his answer was equally to the point: "Sparrowhawks, Ma'am", replied the Iron Duke,

A R JOHNSTON.

LONDON W14

Cash economy

Sir: In "48 hours in Bangkok" (11 February) you advise "barter for wannabe Rolexes". I think you mean bargain. The average western tourist has nothing other than money that interests the stallholders of the Sukhumvit Road.

CHRIS KING

BANGKOK