I wish Roger Lee and other opponents would stop going on about the "illegality" of the war on Iraq.

It is "legal" because the Government says so.

It is "legal" in the sense that the the creation of the Sovereign State of Israel was "legal" (by denying sovereignty to the Palestinians).

And it completely misses the real point that this was a planned atrocity almost on a par with the Holocaust.

The difference is that instead of attempting to eliminate a race, the United States and the UK have succeeded in destroying a nation.

The motive wasn't just about oil or even about pandering to Israeli paranoia.

The true motive was greed - and no-one does greed better than the Americans. Until now.

The idea was to flatten Iraq's communications and utilities and to hand out contracts for reconstruction to mostly American companies. They would have exploited cheap Iraqi labour and paid for the work with stolen Iraqi oil revenues.

But something has gone very badly wrong and thanks to the stupidity of Bush and Blair, our nations find themselves engaged in an endless war that has resulted in our respective economies being put in serious jeopardy.

It isn't surprising that the one class of people guaranteed to escape the consequences of a possible disaster are the super rich, whom New Labour seem to love more than themselves.

GERALD SAMSON Preston Road Abingdon