David James (Bolton Evening News, March 12) is perfectly entitled, if he so chooses, to present the Iraq invasion as the classic three-reel spaghetti Western, with America and ourselves as the good guys, Saddam Hussein as the baddie, and Sheriff Bush riding into town for the clean-up.

For all I know, he also believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

Sadly, real life is a lot more complicated than that. To begin with, there was a time when Saddam was the West's boy - bought, sold and paid for. When he, and his sidekick Chemical Ali, gassed the Kurds and Marsh Arabs, they used materials provided or funded by the West, and technology that was overwhelmingly Western in origin.

And there is ample continuing evidence that by no means all of the Iraqi people welcome the continued US/UK presence. How many suicide bombings does it take to tell us that?

Saddam was a brutal dictator, and the world is better off without him. But there are many others, some worse than he. I am suspicious of any attempt to line up Iran as the next scapegoat.

It isnt our right, or that of the Americans, to bounce around the world changing other peoples governments for them. And I am getting a little bored with the US behaving like a playground bully, and kicking into line anyone who happens to offend them.

Peter Johnston,

Kendal Road,

Bolton