29th January 2004

Dear Sir,

John Keegan engages in his usual berating of the anti-war movement and then asks mockingly why the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did �not admit that his WMD were gone and so deprive the Americans of their reason for invading?� (Daily Telegraph, 29th Jan, 2004)
This is a curious take on recent events from your renowned military historian. May I suggest that if perhaps Sir Keegan had allowed himself to be less awestruck by the Neo-Cons in Washington then he may well have heard the following words from Saddam aired to the rest of the world courtesy of his now famous interview with Tony Benn in February 2003:
�There is only one truth and therefore I tell you as I have said on many occasions before that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever. We challenge anyone who claims that we have to bring forward any evidence and present it to public opinion.�
Saddam was no doubt a terrible despot. Yet, in the wake of yesterday�s admission by the former senior US weapons inspector, David Kay, that Iraq had no illegal weapons stockpiles, it would seem that on the issue of WMD�s, Saddam has proved to be more accurate than some of our own politicians who � like Keegan � consider the US doctrine of pre-emptive military action worthy of support because it leads to a �safer world�.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Inayat Bunglawala,
Secretary,
Media Committee,
The Muslim Council of Britain