IT has not taken Jack Straw very long in his new job to learn all the 'spin' required to give a benign appearance to the presence of British armed forces in other nations' sovereign states (LET, August 30), which he arrogantly calls 'Britain's backyard.'

Those who are not taken in by his words will remember the criminal barbarity of bombing hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, factories, TV and radio stations and the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which provoked an increase in ethnic cleansing and swelled the numbers of refugees.

These war crimes are enthusiastically summarised by Straw as "firm and prompt action by our determined Prime Minister."

There was one week in which Labour had the RAF bombing on two war fronts simultaneously -- Serbia and Iraq.

How long before Straw learns his lines justifying the continuing murder of Iraqi people by economic sanctions and Labour's racist support for the facist Zionist state against the Palestinian people?

Watch these pages.

ALLAN HOPE, Preston New Road, Blackburn.