Mr McEnhill, the memory of your father is to be saluted (‘Answer for your heinous war crimes’, Your Views, August 8).

He is a part of a golden generation whose like will not be seen again in several lifetimes. That generation knew the importance of the carpet bombing of German towns by Britain in 1944, which culminated in the destruction of the historic and beautiful town of Dresden. It was reduced to cinders by a series of fireballs caused by the incessant bombing of the RAF. A single night’s attack alone claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. Soldiers and civilians alike. Those on the home front were well aware of the price being wrought to enable pure evil to be defeated.

In 1999, fighting under the NATO flag against the Serbs, British war planes missed their targets on the outskirts of the capital Belgrade and struck an old people’s home, a hospital, and a refugee camp. When the Serb government protested about the innocent loss of life, the then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said: “It’s too late now to cry crocodile tears. You started it.”

More than 150 children under the age of 13 are believed to have been buried alive while being paid a dollar or two a day building the Hamas terror tunnels. It was Hamas not Israel who sent out innocent ten-year-old suicide bombers with the promise of everlasting life through martyrdom. It was Hamas who less than two weeks ago, see Reuters News Agency, who summarily executed 20 Gaza residents for complaining about the pointless war and the Hamas tactic of using the population as human shields.

I think your father would have recognised real evil no matter what the time or generation. He would have been delighted to have had Hamas leader Khalid Meschel, who encourages his people to fight to the last from the safety and comfort of a five star hotel in Qatar, under lock and key.

A Needlestone

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