You suggest in your editorial (“If there is to be war, it must be a just war”, 21 November) that the attack on Iraq in 2003 was “ill conceived”. That it was, but a more appropriate word would have been “illegal”, undertaken – as the operation was – without United Nations (UN) authority. The disastrous consequences of that invasion become more obvious all the time. Prime Minister David Cameron now suggests that UN approval is only one option among others before we start bombing targets in Syria. Article 51 of the Charter makes clear that the UN route is not an option but an obligation. Without UN approval, bombing would be a disaster for the rule of law. But authorised or not, bombing would only make a disastrous situation worse, not better.B