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Richard Rose ends his very engaging piece ("Mr Bush, this is the way I see it", Features, June 29) with the point that "the President asked me one question that no one else ever had: what would have happened had the British not sent troops into Northern Ireland in 1969?" Rose's answer that "there would have been fighting and deaths but fewer people would have been killed before a new state was established" is certainly plausible. However, the situation was completely different the fact that Northern Ireland was an integral part of the UK, was already garrisoned and the military was used to help the existing civil power made it the wrong question.

Rodney Brunt
Leeds Metropolitan University