The Editor:

Ingratitude of nations is the recurring motif in Ezra Levant's January 27, 2003 column "Ungrateful allies." He berates France and Germany for their recalcitrance to waging war on Iraq but is oddly mute concerning Saddam's monstrous ingratitude toward his onetime ally, the U.S. Recall that it was Donald Rumsfeld, no less, who arrived in Baghdad, in 1983, to normalize relations between the regime and the Reagan White House; relations that allowed Saddam to procure the intelligence data, bio-chemical agents and weapons that enabled him to pursue his criminal aggression against Iran and the Iraqi Kurds. American matériel likely deflected an Iranian victory and strengthened the Iraqi dictator on the home front. Democracy, anyone?

Sincerely yours,

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore AB