I am sure I am not the only person to be likening the recent accords with Saddam Hussein to the Neville Chamberlain 'Peace in our time' negotiations with Herr Hitler in 1938. We all know what happened next.
In 1981 I worked for a northwest London-based American oil company where we were designing new oil refineries for Baghdad.
Part of our brief was to include a 1,000-person nuclear shelter in the facility. A visit to nuclear shelters and gas ventilation companies in Switzerland, where nuclear shelters double up for youth clubs, produced detailed specifications which were implemented and constructed in Baghdad.
Why, I ask myself, would Iraq worry about such facilities and could it not be possible that such facilities could be used for alternative uses? I am sure UN officials are aware of the enormous investments that have gone into such 'defensive' measures, but it does lead one to speculate on the scale of militarisation in Iraq.
It is worth noting that while Hitler was building the West Wall defences in Germany and the Atlantic Wall, he was also deeply involved in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, while having perfected three types of guided missile, and that was in 1933. The times are not a changin'.
ROBERT PICKERING Sai Kung
