I read with interest Roger Smith's article about the justification for the Iraq war (see [2005] Gazette, 12 May, 18).

I notice he presumes that there is such a thing as 'international law' and he quotes the UN charter prohibiting the 'use of force against any state where inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations charter'.


He does not mention the attack on Serbia over Kosovo. This, it might be argued, was a far more blatant breach of international law than the attack on Iraq, as there were no UN resolutions and therefore no international law justification for the attack.


Many of the internationalist, left-wing lawyers and commentators, who have criticised the attack on Iraq, have - by failing to criticise the attack on Serbia - given substance to the argument that the concept of international law is an oxymoronic ideology, which is rolled out to oppose attacks on murderous left-wing regimes and which is ignored when an attack on a murderous right-wing regime is proposed.


Robin Tilbrook, Tilbrook's, Ongar, Essex