It is grotesque and almost incomprehensible that Saddam Hussein can be tried for war crimes by the same "criminals" who armed him and subsequently caused the deaths of more than one million Iraqis in supposedly disarming him.

If Iraq used chemical weapons in Halabja (the senior political analyst for the CIA at that time lays the blame elsewhere) then they were supplied by the US and UK governments.

Furthermore, exports of chemical weapons and cluster bombs were increased after that incident.

Throughout the eight years of the Iran/Iraq war the US, UK and France assembled the largest military fleet in history to protect Saddam's shipping and tilt the outcome of the war in his favour. They sank Iranian ships, shelled their ports, shot down an airliner and supplied Saddam with the intelligence to target Iranian troops with the arsenal they supplied free of charge.

How can anyone not see the madness of the situation? Saddam Hussein was a hateful tyrant. Sitting in the dock alongside Saddam should be the dregs of the last Conservative Government, most of the present Government and half the current US administration including George Bush senior.

These same odious thugs are even now resisting the invitation to reveal their involvement in other atrocities at the farcical trial of Slobodan Milosevic.

Roger Westmoreland,

The Oval,

Pocklington.

Updated: 11:18 Tuesday, July 13, 2004