SIR - In reply to B Thompson's short-sighted comments (Letters, January 8), the US president may not kill his own people but one thing is clear: the US has killed far more innocent people than Saddam. Even a casual look at post-Second World War history makes that much clear.

Millions were killed in Vietnam (where the US used chemical weapons). The war was secretly extended to Laos and Cambodia (where many tens of thousands of more people died). The US propped up unsavoury and brutal regimes all over the world (including Saddam's tyranny).

The role of the US in the affairs of Latin America is well documented, including evidence of support for death squads, assassinations and instigation of instability.

Saddam is indeed a brutal dictator, but his worst atrocities were committed when he was a client state of the US.

As for the impending war, it is clear that only the US and the UK want it. France and Russia may well make a contribution, but only out of self-interest. They do not want to lose out when the spoils of war, in the form of oil, are distributed after the war.

Abrar Khan, Duchy Grove, Heaton

SIR - I write in response to B Thompson's letter making out that George W Bush is the best thing since sliced bread. Is Mr Thompson aware which country last used a nuclear bomb on another country? The USA.

Is he also aware that in developing countries children are dying with diseases that are curable and a few months ago it was agreed by all the world's countries that the developing countries could mass-produce these drugs locally at a cost of only 13 cents per drug which in America would have cost $7 ?

Who vetoed this? The United States, which basically meant that these developing countries were not allowed to make the drugs to save children's lives!

So, Mr Thompson, please don't make out that Saddam Hussein is evil when it's obvious that Mr Bush isn't the shining light you make him out to be. It's bad enough that the good old USA went to get Osama Bin Laden and came back empty-handed and we stood tall by them, didn't we? What a joke!

If that wasn't bad enough now we are going after Saddam. Are we really going to go in there with no evidence of weapons at all?

Waseem Butt, Bannockburn Court, Bradford 5

SIR - In answer to Mr N Brown about "Bully Bush" as he calls the President of the United States.

When he was fighting against bullies, did he let them get the first punch in ?

Saddam has had his punch twice if not more. See what the marsh Arabs in northern Iraq feel about bullies. Ask the people of Kuwait how they feel about bullies and how their families were raped and tortured and killed.

That happened because nice old Saddam owed Kuwait a few billion dollars that he didn't want to pay back. They weren't even prepared for it.

He now calls them his brothers because he needs their support, and we are infidels, so anybody who doesn't believe what he believes in has got to die.

That means Mr Brown too because he is part of the masses he wants to destroy with his weapons of mass destruction. If he gets that punch in, how will Britain go to war then?

Bin Laden is also part of this team and when he says he wants to kill infidels that also means you and your family and your cat, dog, budgie or whatever else you still hold dear.

B Thompson (former British Serviceman), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

SIR - Just what do dead martyrs achieve other than killing innocent women and children? It does nothing to reach a lasting peace.

Since the senseless attack on September 11 and the continued cowardly, brainwashed human suicide bomber attacks in Israel nothing has been achieved other than a lot of dead innocent people.

Saddam Hussein continues to pay the families of the bombers, and for this alone he deserves to be taken out of the equation.

Yassar Arafat still puts money into his Swiss bank accounts. Perhaps he would do more for his cause if he were to offer himself up to be a volunteer to be a dead martyr, another one out of the equation.

If and when hostilities do break out against Iraq, will all Iraqis and their sympathisers be interned for the duration, just as the German people in this country were during the Second World War?

Talking about sympathisers, is it not time that Mubarik Iqbal stopped writing the bile she does against the West?

G Grayne, Hawthorne Avenue, Shipley.

SIR -- Shame on Mike Priestley! His article on asylum seekers (T&A, January 4) was inaccurate, offensive and inflammatory. What does he expect to see in a queue of fully-clothed people in Darley Street Post Office. Blood?

Is it possible for him to tell that someone has been tortured, beaten or raped several months previously? Because the reality is that several of the people he saw will have experienced such trauma.

I have worked voluntarily with asylum seekers in Bradford for the last two years and have seen many on a professional basis. I have witnessed much suffering in people who are displaced, lonely, not allowed to work when they are desperate to do so and treated with hostility by people who know nothing of their lives and stories.

Bradford has what should be seen as a proud history of accepting immigrants who have come to this country fleeing persecution or looking for work. Rather than jumping on a bandwagon of branding asylum seekers as "bogus" or "scroungers" may I suggest that here in Bradford we might welcome this new variety of cultures which has so much to offer to our city.

Dr Joan Giller, Selbourne Villas, Bradford 9

SIR - I would like to congratulate Ken Morrison on the planned expansion of his empire. I am sure it will prove to be very lucrative for him. Maybe he could invest some of the billions of pounds that are being bandied about in Bradford.

I have shopped at the city-centre Morrisons in Westgate for many years as it is the closest large supermarket to me, but I do not think I have ever been to a more rundown store.

The staff do a great job there, but it is more than apparent that the place needs a major facelift. Maybe Morrisons could invest some of their money in an upgrade which would vastly improve the shopping experience for thousands of people.

Daniel Penn, Manor Row, Bradford 1

SIR - I hope that the current inquiry into the Unitary Development Plan will consider the effects which any new housing will have on flooding. The areas themselves may not be susceptible to flooding but they could exacerbate the situation elsewhere.

If rain falls on an unsaturated field it can take days or weeks before any of the water reaches a river. Rain falling on a house roof or a tarmac road will be through the drainage system in minutes, particularly when the development is on a hillside.

John Illingworth, Tunwell Lane, Bradford 2

SIR - Good show Sir Ken, regarding the Morrisons takeover bid for the Safeway supermarket chain.

It seems to me that he is an erudite student of the late and great Martin Luther King Jr who put it that "We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity."

The quality of service Morrisons provides to its customers is second to none. Sir Ken deserves success.

I am proud to be a Bradfordian!

Dilip M Dhokia, Oulton Terrace, Bradford 7