Allow me to respond to SL's letter Since when has Saddam turned idol? and contribute my observations and remarks.

The fact that there are still people like Arbibi Ashoy who support Saddam and his regime in the name of Islam suggests that many of the anti-war opinion-makers have their own political agenda other than the well-being of the ordinary Iraqi people and their children.

They want to advance their own abstract ideologies at the expense of the ordinary Iraqi people and their children. If that weren't so, the anti-war protesters and countries could have mounted pressure o­n Saddam and his henchmen to step down and go into exile so that war could be avoided.

However, knowing fully well the brutality of war and the superiority of American firepower, they still encouraged the Iraqis to fight and sacrifice for nothing, and worse still, for a tyrant that has slaughtered thousands of his own people.

One such abstract ideology is anti-Americanism. According to this ideology motivated by low self-esteem, envy, hatred and megalomaniac impotence, everything miserable under the sun can o­nly be attributed to the evil designs of the US.

Anti-Americanists have never admitted that they themselves or their countries, ethnic or religious communities and leaders could be the root causes of famine, malnutrition, corruption, nepotism, oppression and terrorism.

Anti-Americanism, whether from Islamists, Europeans, leftists and nationalists, o­nly serve to strengthen tyrannical regimes politically and ideologically. Tyrants and terrorists are easily forgiven and even supported just because they shout anti-American slogans and commit crimes against humanity.

It is indeed a very sick psychology.