Islamic State

Your report (19 February) on the macabre depths that Islamic State will stoop to by trading in body parts to finance their operations just confirms fears expressed by Middle Eastern commentators that there are no boundaries for this group.

Now that the genie is out of the bottle there is no easy way to get it back in but the question must be asked: who lifted the lid in the first place?

We, in the West, seem to think that our standards of democracy should be applied to all nations without considering the time scale it took to get here.

So when Western politicians pat each other on the back and say what a good job we have done for democracy in Libya and Syria perhaps they should reflect on the death, destruction and displacement that has happened through their “noble” ideas and also the creep of Islamic State into Europe.

Then we have Benhamin Netanyahu stoking the Middle Eastern fire, but that is for another day.

Ian Brown

Murieston West

Livingston

The atrocity against Christians by Islamic State in Libya underlines how disastrous Western foreign policy has been over the past 
decade.

Iraq, Libya and Syria have been turned into chaotic states where carnage is an everyday occurrence resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of people displaced.

Now among the boatloads landing on Europe’s shores, Islamic terrorist-psychopaths are expected. Yet the Foreign Secretary’s main concern is Ukraine and the supposed possibility of Russia “destabilising” the Baltic states.

America sponsored the present Ukrainian regime from its beginnings in a bloody coup supported by neo-fascists.

The Russian-speaking provinces’ military victories prove that they will not remain part of the Ukraine under any circumstances. If America and its allies try to defeat them by force Russia will most certainly use force too.

Unlike the Middle-Eastern countries that were quickly 
destroyed from end to end, “shock and awe” will not work against Russia.

This is the world’s most heavily armed nuclear state. Western foreign policy should be aimed 100 per cent on the complete and irrevocable defeat of Islamic terror and not at turning Ukraine into a Nato threat to Russia.

William Loneskie

Oxton

Berwickshire