I DISAGREE with Coun Paul Blanchard, ('Morally bankrupt', February 2). At no time during Iraqgate did France say it would not support a second resolution under any circumstances.

Jaques Chirac, to his credit, said: "Tonight we will not support this resolution". The French, with as much diplomatic experience as Britain, realised there was no case for going to war. Saddam was already a broken dictator, with a smashed economy after years of UN-backed sanctions and a punitive, US-imposed, no- fly zone.

Iraq is now in chaos.They had no weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair is so interested in prima donna performances in Parliament he can't be bothered to check the facts before sending troops to die. Everyone, including York MP Hugh Bayley, knows Blair went to war because he was determined to be Bush's best ally.

John Hatfield,

Heworth Green, York.

...PAUL Blanchard needs a better explanation than his "blame the French" approach to why it was right for York's MP to support Britain's invasion of Iraq.

Supporting US self-interest by military force in Iraq has achieved two things.

Firstly, the authority of the United Nations has been undermined. The US and UK paid lip- service to the need for international action and, when faced with not getting their way in the Security Council, they opted for war - behaviour more consistent with a playground bully than international statesmen.

Other countries have leaders we find unacceptable - do we have plans to topple their regimes?

Secondly, is the justification it gives to other countries. If your neighbours threaten, then you blitz them first with the justification that they possess, or were planning to produce, weapons of mass destruction. Maybe Paul Blanchard thinks that being French merits similar treatment.

Paul Kind,

Sefton Avenue,

York.

Updated: 10:44 Saturday, February 07, 2004