Letter of the Week: Mark Holt

This brilliant letter by Mark Holt of Liverpool was 'Letter of the Day' in last Monday's Daily Express.

Out of the Iraqi frying pan and into Afghan fire

So, British troops have finally left Iraq after six agonising years.

The government assures us our troops did a wonderful job and that Iraq is a better place.

But since the 2003 invasion, one million Iraqi civilians have died, the country's infrastructure has been looted or destroyed and most Iraqis say that life was better under Saddam Hussein.

Will Gordon Brown hold an official inquiry into the outlandish lies that led to the war? Or will we be offered another whitewash? Will lessons be learned? And how in future will we be able to restrain an arrogant government hellbent on pursuing similar courses of action?

Sadly, we're involved in other conflicts just as morally repugnant, such as Afghanistan and America's de facto war on Pakistan that has so destabilised the country that the Taliban may take over a nuclear-armed state.

On the subject of the 'outlandish lies that led to the (Iraq) war', a little bird tells me that the pro-war writer David Aaronovitch has got a new book out on conspiracy theories. I wonder if he has included in it the conspiracy theory that Iraq possessed WMDs- a 'theory' that led to the deaths of 1m people?

Something tells me that he probably hasn't.