Facts on the ground at either end of Iraq

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/01/facts-on-the-ground-iraq

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Why is it strange that Garsdale Design, a family firm of architects in Sedbergh, are designing for cities like Nasiriyah (The Yorkshire Dales family who are designing entire cities in Iraq, theguardian.com, 26 August)? What is odd is that they don’t go there. From here in the Shropshire hills we run an extremely successful Manchester University-based archaeological project in Iraq, spending three months a year near Nasiriyah, excavating and training. As in Cumbria or Shropshire, the weather can be rough, and the services are a bit basic (hurry up, Garsdales), but the rewards are more than worth it. In our case, those rewards are not financial, but there is so much business to be had in southern Iraq, the really strange thing is that the British leave all the opportunities to the Italians, Russians, Austrians and other nationalities, who seem to be working there without too much trouble. Perhaps it helps if you don’t read British newspapers.Dr Jane MoonDirector, Ur Region Archaeology Project

• Craig Sams (Questions raised by the rise of Isis, Letters, 28 August) plays the game of moral equivalence that so many enjoyed in the 1930s. Had he been around after the Nazi invasions of the Rhineland and Austria, he would doubtless have written: “Now they have established a base where they can fulfil their dream of an Aryan state. Why not let them have it? Agree new borders with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Italy to replace the arbitrary frontiers settled by the Treaty of Versailles, encourage the repopulation of the region with Aryans and fund the relocation of Jews and Romanies. The United States of America were established against a similar background of desperation mixed with terrorist cruelty – existential challenges bring out the worst in people. The west supported the American dream, so why not the Nazi one?”Dr Anne SummersLondon