Letter: Why we bombed Iraq in the 1920s

Sir: Patrick Cockburn, in his critique of the military action against Iraq (4 September), refers to the "bombing into submission" of the Iraqis in the 1920s.

At the time the country was plagued by inter-tribal raiding, which it was our duty to curb. The British Army had an impossible task: the nature of the country ensured that slow-moving columns could never come to grips with the raiders, who in any case - in the way of guerrillas of all ages - merged undetectably into the local population.

What the Royal Air Force proposed was that they could better achieve the object by air action; it would also be considerably cheaper. Events proved the proposition correct. The tactic was to warn the village headman to desist his depredations on pain of having no village to return to; warning was always given of the impending attack and casualties thereby avoided.

ARTHUR SPEAKMAN

Samlesbury, Lancashire