After the trauma

• What can be more tragic than being declared deserters while being incarcerated in enemy jails? There is no point in simply sending Jasgir Singh and Mohammed Arif back to the service that had disowned them in the first place — which eventually broke their homes. The best course now would be to honorably discharge them with full pension benefits and let them pick up the threads of new lives by absorbing these valiant soldiers in some other vocation or service.

— Raghubir Singh Pune

Beyond apology

• It hardly matters whether American President George W. Bush apologises for the shameful excesses committed by his army at Abu Ghraib on Iraqi prisoners, or whether his Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld resigns over this matter — for the damage has already been done. The world has seen the dark and utterly inhuman side of America, which always talks big of upholding human rights and treating its prisoners with dignity. All this only further undermines the US attack on Iraq and gives a clear impression that the superpower has done all this only to gain complete control of the oil-rich country.

— V. Rajesh On e-mail

In a clear frame

• Amrita Shah is right when she says America is feeling very powerless (‘Snapshots of sadistic insanity’, IE, May 10). The photographs showing the treatment meted out to Iraqi prisoners has brought the US to its knees — at least morally. The US administration, it turns out, had done little homework before it set sail to attack Iraq. The myth of weapons of mass destruction has long been shattered and even forgotten! The false promises of giving freedom and democracy to Iraq after Saddam Hussein was overthrown have been ill-kept.
Shah reads well into the pictures to see their potential of undermining whatsoever legitimacy the US may claim. It also makes one wonder what might be going on inside prisons at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan.

— Mohamad Junaid On e-mail

Chapra shuffle

• The Election Commission deserves praise for countermanding the Chapra Lok Sabha election (‘Vote again, EC tells Chapra, blames all’, IE, May 11). The EC must now take special measures to ensure that the voters in this constituency get a chance to vote freely, fairly and fearlessly.

— M.C. Joshi On e-mail