14 SEPTEMBER 1991, Page 26

Dirty blow

Sir: How sad that John Simpson (17 August) should join President Bush and our own unctuous Foreign Office in rub- bishing General Aoun for his 'mindless campaign to destabilise Lebanon and pre- vent the Syrians from taking it over'. Why that objective should be called 'mindless' I don't know. There are memorials all over this country in glorious memory of those who fought at a time when all seemed lost and the price of resistance enormous and pointless. It may have been inconvenient that the Lebanese Christians did not accept the Judas bargain with the Syrians which sold their freedom and wasted their years of struggle but we cannot deny their right to fight at a cost they choose to pay for freedom from a powerful neighbour. The rescue of Kuwait was fair enough but was it worth such a dirty blow by us against such a courageous and admirable people as the Lebanese?

George Thomas

17 Campden Hill Square, London W8