Readers are invited to submit letters to The Guardian.
Letters may be e-mailed to guardian@cpa.org.au.
Letters of 300-400 words are preferred.

Letters to the Editor:

To Simon Crean, Leader of the Opposition
& Kevin Rudd, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.

I write to urge that the ALP support the resolution of the Australian 
Democrats to be moved in the Senate calling for an inquiry into the issue 
of the threatened war against Iraq.

Such a war will be a calamity not only for Iraq but for all Middle Eastern 
countries. Its consequences cannot be estimated. Nor is there any credible 
evidence that Iraq has been developing weapons of mass destruction or is 
capable of manufacturing a nuclear weapon. Statements by President Bush and 
Prime Minister Blair appear to be mere assertions.

The pursuit of a "first strike" is also a violation of international law as 
well as of the Charter of the United Nations.

I make two other points.

While the government leaders have made much of the necessity to enforce 
decisions of the UN Security Council, absolutely nothing is being said 
about the many decisions made by the Security Council calling upon Israel 
to withdraw to its pre-1967 war borders. Israel, with the support of the 
United States, has been in violation of these resolutions for more than 30 
years. The government's position is extremely hypocritical.

The question of its sovereignty has also been invoked by the US from time 
to time and by the Australian government in relation to refugees for 
example. Iraq also has sovereignty and it is up to the people of Iraq to 
change their government.

The US has absolutely no right to even call for a regime change let alone 
launch a war to achieve that end. If such an approach is pursued in 
relation to Iraq where will it end?

Couldn't this same principle be used by other countries in the future 
against governments which they may not like? Could Indonesia invade 
Australia to remove an Australian government that it did not like?

Please act urgently when the matter is debated in parliament in the coming 
week to stop the present madness.

Peter Symon
General Secretary, Communist Party of Australia

The Carr Government is rapidly losing its way in the run-up to the March 
2003 election. In the past few years there have been more prisoners in 
jail, for longer periods, and more police in action.

In spite of all this the crime rate has gone up. Mr Carr is now talking 
about minimum mandatory sentencing and tougher sentences.

In the past he promised to concentrate on the causes of crime. This is the 
approach favoured by the Progressive Labour Party.

Research has shown time and again that more severe sentences do not deter 
would-be transgressors from committing crime.

Other research supports the view that emphasis on social policy to prevent 
crime is far more effective. Yet, the record of the Carr Government in 
expenditure on education, welfare, family support and mental illness, as 
compared with other states, is now regarded as poor.

The redeeming feature appears to be the NSW Families First program but the 
investment made in this program is tokenistic.

Why not support an immediate 10-fold increase (to $290 million p.a.) as 
recommended recently by Dr Victor Nasser of the South Western Sydney Area 
Health Service?

Dr Klaas Woldring
Potts Points, NSW

Our politicians and other theorists, who will not be at risk at the 
sharp end of action, talk glibly of the need to eliminate weapons of mass 
destruction (WMD).

We know they are talking about weapons such as chemical, biological and 
nuclear weapons.

I submit that for the rest of us, weapons of mass destruction can be many 
things.

The invasion force that went into Panama to arrest Noriega, leaving over 
2000 dead Panamanians, was for them a WMD.

For the passengers of the Iranian airliner shot down over the Gulf of Iran, 
and their relatives, the US missile that did it was a WMD.

For the people of Afghanistan the massive bunker buster bombs and the 
cluster bombs that the Allies rained down on them were WMD which could go 
on killing for many years (as do the landmines in Cambodia, Vietnam, and 
more recent war arenas).

And for the helpless Palestinian populations of the refugee camps of the 
West Bank and Gaza, Israeli tanks and bulldozers are WMD.

It is also very obvious that an invasion of Iraq by the world's superpower 
(which possesses more WMD than any other country on earth), perhaps aided 
by other powerful countries, would be the most obscene use of weapons of 
mass destruction the world would know.

Instead, let us insist that our diplomats earn their money and titles as 
diplomats by using diplomacy to rid the world of WMD, instead of ordinary 
people's lives.

Ron Gray
Australian Peace Committee (South Australian Branch) Inc

Email: r-grayle@msn.com.au
Website: http://www.peacecourier.com