The Government has been accused of 'placing pure economic interests' above the values espoused by its people. Lorna Siggins reports
A former United Nations weapons inspector, Mr Scott Ritter, has criticised the Irish Government for "placing pure economic interests" above the values espoused by its people in relation to the US-British invasion of Iraq.
Ireland now had to decide what it wanted to be - "a US colony, which it now is", or "a state which stands up for neutrality and the principles of international law", Mr Ritter said in Galway.
"If you continue to kowtow to the US government's interests, you might as well take down the Irish flag and hoist up the US Stars and Stripes. And if you think the US is your friend, it is not. The US is out to seek global domination, and if it is not invading Ireland with its troops, it is definitely invading Ireland with its economy."
The former UN weapons inspector and former marine was in Ireland last week as he was due to testify at the trial in Ennis Circuit Court of Ms Mary Kelly, the peace campaigner charged with damaging a US navy plane at Shannon Airport.
Mr Ritter addressed a public meeting hosted by the Galway Alliance Against War in Galway city on Thursday night.
The jury in the case was discharged on Thursday night after it failed to reach a verdict on the main charge of causing criminal damage to a US navy plane on January 29th last.
Mr Ritter appealed to Irish people to "rally around this extraordinary case and this extraordinary woman" and recognise that Ms Kelly's act was one of "desperation" rather than vandalism.
"Her case confronts Ireland with a decision on its own future," he added.
Mr Ritter served with the UN weapons inspection team, UNSCOM, in Iraq from 1991 and was chief inspector for 12 of 35 inspection missions.
He resigned in 1998 because the Iraqi government was obstructing the inspectors' work and because he believed that the UN Security Council was not serious about implementing its mandate.
Last year Mr Ritter publicly opposed the US build-up towards war against Iraq and he travelled to Baghdad to address the Iraqi parliament last September. He appealed to the Iraqi National Assembly to let UN weapons inspectors back in.
Mr Ritter claims that Baghdad had been fundamentally disarmed after the 1991 Gulf war.
His inspection teams had documentation showing that 90 to 95 per cent of Iraq's remaining weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed by the time the UN inspectors left in 1998. "One hundred per cent of production facilities were also destroyed, and the UN knows this," he says. "We blew up the last factory in 1996."
The fact that no such weapons had been discovered after the invasion was not a surprise to him.
He said that the Irish Government and other governments supporting the war had "demonised" opponents of conflict by suggesting that they were taking up Saddam Hussein's case.
"Who wants to be seen to be taking up his case? I spent 12 years in the service of the US Marine Corps and spent seven years trying to disarm Hussein, but I was against war because I am pro-democracy and in favour of protecting the US Constitution."
Mr Ritter said that the US administration had used the concept of weapons of mass destruction to "bully people into the idea of US global hegemony".
However, the aftermath of war was "not going well" for the US, with continued military casualties.
He said that he did not see Iran becoming the next target until after the 2004 US presidential election. "If Mr Bush is returned, there will be perpetual war. The war machine is only on pause until after 2004," he added.