Readers' corner

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Syrians unlimited

Sir-- I agree with some commentators that the Arab League "looks confused" like they don't know what to do, like the killing is not yet enough. I wonder how much killing is enough. How much was enough for Russia's Stalin after WWII? How much insanity is necessary for the world to help Syria? The Arab League needs to act now but has it ever accomplished anything worthwhile?

Samah Hassan
Cairo
Egypt

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The Gaddafi pictures

Sir-- Even a man like Gaddafi didn't deserve to die the way he did. Nothing can justify the decision to show the footage of Gaddafi and it doesn't matter how many times people thought long and hard about what footage to show. We did not live under Gaddafi's regime and we are not in a position to judge the behaviour of the individuals caught up in a moment of anger and feelings of injustice. It would be just as ridiculous to judge a father's actions after witnessing the rape and murder of his daughter. We were not "the father" nor were we the victim of Gaddafi's torturous regime so we were not in a position to make a rational judgement as to whether this was something anyone should witness.

Has the world lost its conscience completely? Did no one feel that stirring in the soul that is human when Gaddafi's bloodied, battered body was paraded for the world to see and gloat? It was not at all ethical in my view. Nor was it ethical to celebrate the death/killing of him even if he was a killer himself. I am no supporter of dictators and killers but I believe the media were also playing a role in promoting these unethical acts. Such acts do not promote justice through due process.

There is just one lingering regret. If Gaddafi had made it to The Hague he would have had the right to call character witnesses before sentencing. Perhaps he would have asked one of his most vociferous international cheerleaders.

Ahmad Abdel-Tawwab
Cairo
Egypt

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Dividing the nation

Sir-- In his introduction to his book Choice of Enemies Lawrence Freedman referred to the present main objective of the West in the Middle East by stating that their interest is to stir up trouble between Shia and Sunni by any means. He also predicted in his book, which covered the period from 1976-2008, the Arab uprising. In Egypt, nowadays, we are writing in our newspapers about Shia, Sunni, Salafi, Muslim Brotherhood, Gamaat, Copt, liberal, non-religious, etc. We thus divided the nation into many groups and each is working according to a different agenda under very complicated circumstances. Are we serving the purposes of others intentionally?

Yasser Fathi
Madrid
Spain

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Correction:

In "Topple their debts!" ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 3-9 November), the Tunisian panelist is Fathi Chamkhi and the Independent Trade Union head is Kamal Abu Eita.