Dear Sirs

The first two episodes of Michael Ignatieff's "Future War" have concentrated on the US military's mode of warfare. It is about time this subject got some airtime, and their 'futuristic' methods, as well as motives, were analysed. "Future War", however, fails to critically examine both the way the USA fights, and why. In the first episode, Ignatieff visits the Vietnam War Memorial, giving the impression that the USA were the victims. The names on the Memorial are all military, all adult. There is no reference made to the thousands of Vietnamese killed. Many were civilians, many were children.
An even worse example of Ignatieff's callous disregard of foreign life is his visit to the graveyard of Allied victims of the Gulf War, numbering around 150 people. No reference is made to the 200,000 Iraqis killed in the Gulf War, and the 1.6 million starved to death since then. The programme goes on to talk about incredibly accurate weaponry, and 'bloodless' wars. What wasn't mentioned was the fiasco in the Balkans, where tractors filled with refugees were 'accidentally' hit because of fog! Iraqi people have blood, and plenty of it has been spilt by supposedly super-accurate weaponry.
In the second show, the threat of biological and chemical weapons was mentioned. The US military were presented as the force which would protect against use of such weaponry. However, the worst such weapon in use today is America's Depleted Uranium shell. As a result of this shell, cancer rates in Iraq have risen to 10 times that of pre-Gulf War rates. Their effect in the Balkans has yet to be realised, but it is likely to be much worse, as the fighting did not occur in remote desert areas.
Ignatieff's programme was not a documentary, but propaganda. The pro-USA sentiments and lack of critical analysis are a disgrace. This programme doesn't belong on a BBC which maintains its stance as independent and unbiased.

Yours faithfully

Ronan Dodds

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Sent to:

Fraser Steel
BBC Broadcasting House
London W1 1AA

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Points of View: pov@bbc.co.uk

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