Letter: War ethics

Joan McAlpine's harrowing description (Opinion, 13 August) of Afghan woman Sharbat Gula's punishment disfigurement and the lashing and shooting of a widow by the Taleban bears eloquent testimony to humanity's limitless capacity for inhumanity.

However, Ms McAlpine is wrong to suggest that such cultural bestiality justifies the presence of western occupying forces for a moment longer than is avoidable. Her statement "allied bombs have killed and maimed women - but the Taleban killed and maimed more" merely affirms that both sides contribute to the deaths and that the removal of one must reduce that total.

We are not guardians of world morality; "honour punishment" exists in European countries, while your same issue contains reports of an Iranian woman condemned to death by stoning and Ugandan rebels forcing children to kill their brothers and sisters. Should we intervene in these cases?

The general public's vague grasp of the Afghan campaign is of reprisal against the Taleban (freely confused with al-Qaeda) for attacks against us. In the end we will withdraw, claiming to have won, but Taleban control will not be in any degree reduced.

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent, East Lothian