Madam, - Some years ago, at the height of their oppression of Afghanistan, the Taliban earned the wrath of the world, not for their abuses of people but for blowing up revered but lifeless ancient statues. Now it seems there is funding available to put the smithereened statuary back together again and a serious attempt will be made to do just that, whatever the cost.
But also last week The Irish Times reported the deaths of four little children in a tented Afghan encampment, the "world's" chosen accommodation for the living survivors of their war in a cold country.
There is money for debris but not for people. Money to seek out possible weapons of mass destruction but no meaningful effort for the 35 million people now in danger from famine.
What is mass destruction if not thousands dying daily from hunger? What is mass destruction if not thousands dying daily from Aids/HIV in indebted countries with little or no health services. What is mass destruction if not the millions of people living in refugee camps across the world - on the run from current and long-gone wars.
If all this seems very far away and irrelevant to Ireland perhaps we should consider the costs involved in last week's written commitment to a stadium or the steely lifeless spire about to rise above O'Connell Street.
Set these costs against the hospitals, homeless, schools, handicapped and elderly left behind by the recent Budget and we will see that while the scale of need is different, in Ireland and across the world, living struggling ordinary people are not the priority.
Maybe there will be a war in 2003 - a war, we are told, to defend justice, decency and the rights of humanity. Justice, decency and human rights are defended and extended by concrete actions and policies.
Wars happen in the absence of such actions and policies. - Yours, etc.,
MÁIRE KELLY,
Johnstown,
Co Kildare.