It’s difficult to know where to begin. John Birmingham (‘The Man who Fell to Earth’, October 2010) conveniently overlooks the fact that the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq is totally illegal. Notwithstanding the a postiori legitimisation of the invasion by the UN. There is, and has existed since 2003, overwhelming evidence of American atrocities in that wretched country.

Birmingham implies that an embed journo is to be accepted without criticism. I’m appalled. From which source does the evidence emanate that some of the Iraqis were found to be armed with AK47s and RPGs? Photographs taken by the very soldiers who were complicit in the destruction! Spare me.

I have practised as a criminal lawyer for the majority of my 33-year career. One learns to be sceptical of the kind of evidence that was reviewed by the commanding officers mentioned by the embed.

Given the atrocious documented history of American involvement in all manner of nefarious activities I find it disturbing that Birmingham can so flippantly dismiss the WikiLeaks revelations with comments such as “not for WikiLeaks is the tiresome business of eliminating bias, offering rights of reply or even at times fact-checking its information”. This can equally be applied to John Birmingham himself. Mainstream journalism has no reputation for upholding those things for which he derides WikiLeaks.

I don’t know who owns the Brisbane Times but it is obvious that John Birmingham is well embedded in the corporate media. It seems obvious that he is having difficulty with the plank in his own eye!

Michael Kozlowski

Newcastle, NSW