THE Western media recently has been full of - often the same - pictures of Iraqis laden with goods, furniture and electrical items from the latest looting spree.

The endless pre-occupation with looting is not without reason.

First, it serves to justify the need for Western presence and intervention to solve issues such as looting, thieving and lawlessness - even though they clearly are taking no measures to prevent them.

Second, in the longer term, it creates the scenario of people who are unable to look after themselves and thus in severe need of being administered, advised and governed by outside forces.

However, the Western media has failed to mention reports of looters being encouraged in areas where Crusader forces are present, in order to remove the last vestiges of the previous regime.

Similarly they haven't mentioned that in some areas local residents have claimed that foreign individuals, unknown to them, are perpetrating much of the looting. Such reports would paint a very different impression on what is actually occurring on the ground.

Yet in all of this pathetic preoccupation with small-time thievery, the real crooks are stealing the real wealth of the Iraqi people right before everyone's eyes.

The real "looting" by Western forces and their multinationals, started immediately after the commencement of hostilities, when they secured 1,000 oilfields in Southern Iraq.

This gameplan continued when the Crusaders aimed to quickly secure the oil rich north of Iraq, in particular the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Indeed, once the Crusaders have implanted a puppet administration, the looting of Iraq's huge quantities of oil and gas, will be enshrined in the constitution.

AHMED RAZA,

Worcester.