BILLY FITZPATRICK,
Madam, - "Bombs kill before ever they explode," wrote Bishop Cassidy over 10 years ago in his preface to the Irish Roman Catholic bishops' document, "War and Peace in a Nuclear Age". The bishops claimed a causal link between arms expenditure and world hunger. In that context it was good to hear Minister of State Tom Kitt recently decrying the shame of the enormous military expenditure for the Iraqi "war effort" while vast areas of Africa were on the brink of unprecedented famine.
But what of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, himself? We are now on the eve of one of the most contrived wars waged by Western powers since the height of the colonial era. There are no known links between Iraq and 9/11. The US and Britain seem unable to supply UN arms inspectors with their "incontrovertible" evidence of the continued presence of weapons of mass destruction there. On the other hand, a report entitled "Strategic Energy Policy Challenges for the 21st Century", recently unearthed in the US, shows the Bush administration has been planning to attack Iraq since April 2001.
By all accounts, therefore, this threatened war is a "resource war", the first of the 21st century, and the UN is being shamefully used and misused to this end. When Norway and a number of other non-permanent members of the Security Council protested at being "treated as second-class members" by the US and Britain when denied access to the full arms inspectors' report, we expected Mr Cowen might finally break his silence and support them. We were mistaken.
Why is Mr Cowen not speaking out? What is he waiting for? A major Irish Times/MRBI poll last October showed the Irish people oppose any war against Iraq even with UN Security Council approval. Furthermore, the UN and a growing body of international observers - among them a number of former US presidents - have stated that this threatened war could have catastrophic consequences not just for the Middle East but for Africa, Europe and the world at large. - Yours, etc.,
BILLY FITZPATRICK,
Chairperson, Irish CND,
Dublin 6.
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Madam, - A recent poll published in the Los Angeles Times suggested that 42 per cent of US citizens are opposed to war with Iraq. Furthermore, of the 58 per cent who said they would support war with Iraq, only 26 per cent favoured "unilateral action". The vast majority of US citizens will not support a war that does not have the approval of the United Nations. George Bush simply does not have the support of his voters to "go it alone".
Contrary to current rumour, this war is not inevitable. Any and every single voice of opposition matters now. - Yours, etc.,
MARY VAN LIESHOUT,
US Citizens in Ireland
for Alternatives to War,
Upper Camden Street,
Dublin 2.