Philip Jackson with Wireless Operator, one of the air crew to feature in his 2012 Bomber Command Memorial in The Green Park

• THE letter from Zekria Ibrahimi about the memorial to Bomber Command is a good example of the luxury of freedom afforded to its writer by the sacrifice unto death of others when the need to preserve that freedom was vital, (I see this sculpture as propaganda, January 28).

History tells us of the price exacted on the innocent by that war and, in terms of any “scale” of innocence, the country that instigated and enthusiastically pursued its intent is at the bottom, not least at a time when the Holocaust is very much in mind.

The aim of Sir Arthur Harris was to bring war home to its origins in such a way that it would hasten the end of the conflict. In the process over 50,000 of his aircrew personnel paid the ultimate price in achieving that aim; hence the memorial in question.

All conflicts exact a terrible price but the aims can be vastly different. I know where my gratitude lies and it’s not with the aggressors that pushed the world into the abyss of near-Armageddon via national racial / ethnic hatred and the search for world domination.

MARK NEWBERRY
Harcourt Street, W1