AS Christmas draws near, I find myself wondering if Hugh Bayley, as he prepares for his own Christmas, reflects on some of the statistics coming out of the horror that is now Iraq.
About 1,250 young American soldiers and perhaps 63 British will not see this Christmas Day. And how many Iraqi citizens have been killed and injured? Tens of thousands?
Most of the 300,000 people who lived in Fallujah have fled. Where will they be on our Christmas Day?
Gordon Brown now admits the financial cost so far to be £5 billion - the equivalent of 1.5p on the standard rate of income tax.
With an extra £520 million now being set aside for "additional costs" - enough to pay for three general hospitals or 20 schools - £5 billion could have been a society-changing Christmas present for us all. I wonder if he reflects on the increasing majority opposed to this illegal war, the million-plus who marched in London and the reluctance of the rest of the world to support "us".
Jonathan Charles Bonner,
Huntington Road, York.
Updated: 10:26 Wednesday, December 08, 2004
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