REGARDING your report (LET, October 2) on Blackburn with Darwen Councillor Patricia McFall asking at the Labour Party conference for understanding of Tony Blair's decision to go to war on Iraq, the reason given at the time was Saddam Hussein's use of 'weapons of mass destruction.' None have been found.

Saddam was a brutal tyrant. Was that before or after he was an ally of the Americans and the British in the twisted politics of the Iran/Iraq war?

In the interests of humanity we must not abandon the Iraqi people.

It is normal when people are being asked to make sacrifices, that they are told the truth, as Churchill did in his 'Blood, sweat, toil and tears speech.' Were we told the truth before the invasion?

As a Liberal Democrat whose party and leader has been vilified as disloyal and unpatriotic over the run-up to the war by both Labour and Conservative candidates, I take exception to people like Coun McFall and her apologist ilk and the following article by Jack Straw, pontificating to me on what my attitude should be towards the horrendous situation they have created.

My party consistently advocated following the United Nations path, to create a unified approach to the invasion. What is now obvious is that sanctions were having a serious effect upon the life of ordinary Iraqis and that had Dr Hans Blix, of the UN inspectorate, been allowed to continue his work, he would have arrived at the current conclusion without the tremendous and continuing costs of the war.

It is obvious from the events following the end of the invasion that no thought was given to the post-war situation. The semantics of the situation, seized upon by our leaders to justify an illegal invasion are unimportant now.

What now matters is that British and American troops are stuck long-term in a hostile environment, surrounded by hostile nations. Troops are being killed at the rate of two per day, not including civilians.

I would have thought that we had had enough experience in Northern Ireland in sectarian/religious situations to realise the seriousness of the current situation.

This has all the hallmarks of another Vietnam and I do not blame the other nations of the world in being reluctant to send their young men to be sacrificed.

D D'ARCY, Haslingden Old Road, Knuzden, Blackburn.