Letter: Iraqi crisis

What is emerging from the Iraqi crisis is the general acceptance, at face value, of the American and British governments' allegations about Iraq.

Prior to the 1991 Gulf War, two reports were circulated which created great hostility towards Iraq, to the extent of making public opinion supportive of waging a ruthless war. The first story was about Iraq amassing troops and tanks on the Kuwait/Saudi border in preparation for an attack on Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter. The second story was about Iraqi soldiers seizing incubators from a Kuwaiti hospital and discarding the babies. A few years later, both stories were proven to be untrue (Channel Four, The Lies That Made the Gulf War, January 1996). However, the damage had already been done.

R NADHMI

London SW6