I see that your countrymen are at it again, exclaimed a colleague referring to last Friday's twin suicide bombings in Baghdad. I am afraid there wasn't a great deal that I could say, except to condemn the perpetrators who, for scarcely understood religious or political motive, have again committed an act of blasphemy, nothing less.
They, wantonly and without provocation, have brutally snuffed out the lives of many decent and innocent people.
This latest bombing, coming when the people of Baghdad were beginning to enjoy a degree of peace and security, is an unwelcome reminder that the forces of evil are still intent on drowning the country in blood, and condemning its people to an even darker and uncertain future.
Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW
Group punishment
Israel's recent actions of punishing an entire people for the actions of a few are deplorable.
It is punishing already starving children, punishing hospital-bound people relying on life support now fuelled only by autonomous electricity plants, punishing injured people set for surgery to be performed in potential darkness, punishing children in incubators who have no chance to fend for themselves.
Israel is condemning an entire people to die of thirst, to be exposed to disease, with Gazans set to starve to death with no avenue of relief.
Israelis demand sympathy for their people's past experiences, yet they are imposing the same experiences on another nation with no sense of remorse and with no regard to international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It just goes to show that too much power in the wrong hands can dehumanise an entire people at the expense of another.
Nada Abdel-Fattah, Quakers Hill, NSW
Unconquerable
Visitors to the National Library's exhibition Pioneers of The Inland may care to examine closely a photograph of a pioneer named Bejak Dervish, seated in front of a house with his wife Amelia Shaw.
He was an Afghan cameleer. Look closely at his features. In earlier Australian times he would be regarded as a "hard man" fierce looking, proud, unforgiving, uncompromising and not a person to be taken lightly.
Think about him and the Taliban Afghan people of today. Throughout modern history they have never been conquered and it is very unlikely they will be during this 21st century.
Kevin McMahon, Fraser
Past participles
You said ("Delta bares her soles for all", February 2) Delta Goodrem "sung" a mix of old songs and new music. She actually sang them.
M. Robinson, Bruce