I READ with interest the letter on Iraq (Angered by story of soldier in Iraq, Letters, June 15). I, like many others, opposed the invasion of that country. Nonetheless, it happened. Now it is to the present situation I refer.

Democracy, we are told, is the key to Iraq's future. There is, of course, much more to successful democracy than mere vote-casting, however free and fair.

Unless democracy frees the Iraqi people from the many problems, often starkly material, which oppress them, unless it inspires them with a sense of national pride, genuine sovereignty and independence, it will fail and the very concept of democracy may forfeit public confidence.

The prolonged presence of foreign troops and undue foreign influence - political, economic and often clandestine - are affronts to national pride.

Were these removed, then, at least, the problem of nationalist resentment would be assuaged. So much of the Bush-Blair rhetoric is, as Dr Johnson said of a second marriage, "the triumph of hope over experience". How much longer can they sustain the hope they profess to feel?

ALUN JONES

Baxter Avenue, Kidderminster