BOB Dylan wrote his anti-war song Masters of War in 1963 and, whilst reading David Pratt's excellent article on the conflict in Yemen ("How bombs made in Scotland are helping to fuel death toll in Yemen", The Herald, August 11), I was struck by how apposite and powerful the lyrics of the song are today regarding this ongoing tragedy.
Though many in the UK may be ignorant of, or apathetic towards this internecine conflict, Mr Pratt adroitly explains why the military material aid and advice supplied by the UK and US Governments make them complicit in the human tragedy that continues to unfold in the Yemen.
In Masters of War Dylan believes that those who provide the arsenal of weapons for such disputes have abrogated their moral responsibility for the carnage that they sponsor as they remorselessly reap the rewards of the sale of arms, indifferent to the human consequences.
This sentiment resonates starkly in the current humanitarian morass in Yemen.
In the last three years the human crisis in Yemen has witnessed 10,000 dead and 40,000 wounded. At the time of writing more than 20 million people are faced with a blockade imposed by the coalition which, together with the ravages of war, has resulted in cholera outbreaks, malnutrition and a daily struggle to survive.
Yet the UK Government continues to supply the coalition with deadly armaments and guidance on how to utilise them to their full effect.
To be informed by Mr Pratt that many of the weapons bestowed on the coalition by the UK emanate from the Raytheon company in Fife is both distressing and exasperating in equal measure, particularly when we consider the deaths of 29 children last week, bombed indiscriminately by coalition forces whilst returning from a school picnic.
The UK Government must now seriously address the recent conclusions of a cross-party committee on export licences which appears to recommend that our current mercenary foreign policy be examined to, at the very least, look critically at a moral or ethical dimension to our international trade.
Failure to respond to these conclusions and allow the promotion of destruction in Yemen to continue unabated would be complicit, callous and unacceptable.
Should that be the case then we must return to the anger and human outrage embedded in the lyrics of Masters of War: "Even Jesus would never forgive what you do."
Owen Kelly,
8 Dunvegan Drive, Stirling.
DAVID Pratt's report on the complicity of UK military personnel in the breaches of humanitarian law in Yemen's conflict must challenge our collective conscience). Surely with the deaths of 29 children we need to declare enough is enough. Who will speak for the children?
Roddy MacDonald
1 Glenmount Place, Ayr.
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