Colonial Powers

“The Peril of Strange-Bedfellowship” by Cheryl Benard (Commentary, Oct. 15) was excellent reading. She has very nicely and justly sympathized with the villain’s (Saddam Hussein) position. Truly, the colonial powers have divided the world to their advantage by artificially dividing countries. They did not care about the consequences to the local population.

They punished a big country like Iraq by giving it only one port, Basra, while they rewarded the tiny Sabah family with immense oil wealth and good ports. Look at Malaysia and oil-rich Brunei! Whatever British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says about right and wrong, a lot of blood and atrocities could have been avoided if tiny Britain had not gone out to conquer the world.

The atrocities that the British committed in India during their rule are unforgivable. Hundreds of thousand innocent people died during the partition of India and Pakistan. The same for Palestine.

Now the British talk about democracy and justice! They forget the days when a tiny island like Britain made most of the world its slave.

O. VASAN

Yorba Linda