THE hand that destroys can also nurture.
Nowhere, perhaps, is this better demonstrated than in post war Iraq, and the person who demonstrates it most effectively is the RAF Lyneham commander Group Captain Ray Lock.
A little over a decade ago, he was over Saddam Hussein's territory in a Tornado, helping to rain destruction on, among other things, a bridge and a refinery.
Today he is leading moves to get Basra international airport running again, and is in command of 150 RAF personnel.
He says his aim is to rebuild the region and give the Iraqi people as good a life as possible.
Attitudes such as his are vital for what are very delicate times in the region and must be aired time and time again if the West is to convince the Arab world that its motivation in invading was not to secure oil, territory or influence, but to rid the world of a dangerous, unstable dictator and his instruments of oppression.
And to give the Iraqi people the safety they deserve after years of living under that oppression.
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