The Minister for Foreign Affairs must decide whether he is "closer to Boston or Berlin", and if he supports the Franco-German proposal to strengthen weapons inspections in Iraq, according to the Green Party.
Its foreign affairs spokesman, Mr John Gormley, said the US position on Iraq was for war, one way or the other. "If the arms inspectors find weapons, there will be a war. If they do not find weapons, there will be a war. If there is a UN resolution, there will be a war. If there is no UN resolution, there will be a war." Hitting out at the Mr Cowen's "affinity" with the US, he said the joint French, German and Russian proposal was under the auspices of the UN and "will avert a full-scale war".
Mr Gormley said the Minister should row in behind these "positive proposals" and increase the chance of peace.
The Minister was condemned by Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins (Dublin West) for his failure in his speech to "even refer to" these proposals which were a "hugely significant" move to "slow the mad stampede of the Bush and Blair regimes" to launch a war on Iraq.
Was Mr Cowen's failure to mention them "because the Government is absolutely terrified of offending the US and some of the European powers".
He said the Government "wants to hide from taking any principled position on this question". The Government's "trembling subservience" to the US was like a jellyfish. "But this is unfair to the jellyfish, which like the Government, may not have any backbone but at least has a sting".
The French, Germans and Russians did not have a "sudden conversion to moral virtue. France and Russia have substantial business dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime". They were capable of "acute cynicism" in trying to protect those interests but they recognised "the mass opposition among the working-class people of Europe to an attack on Iraq".
Thousands of Irish opponents to war would march on the streets of Dublin this weekend in "unprecedented numbers", predicted Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan).
He asked did Ireland's experience with Britain not show that "no superpower can prevail by force and repression and domination and that it must respect human rights and its responsibility in the peaceful resolution of conflict through dialogue".