REFUSING to allow US military aircraft to land at Shannon Airport would merely delay the Americans by 20 minutes, the Minister of State for Justice told the Dáil.
Mr Willie O'Dea said the aircraft would go to Prestwick Airport in Scotland, "where they will be received with open arms". Declaring that Ireland and the US were tied "by ties of blood and friendship", he said that 60 per cent of investment in the Shannon region was from the US.
"American investment accounts for tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the country. In the past, we have often called on America for assistance and it has always answered the call.
"The Good Friday Agreement would not be in place but for the United States, and it has helped us in several other ways."
Mr O'Dea was speaking during the second and final day of the debate on a private member's motion calling on the Government to apply all possible pressure to prevent an attack on Iraq and to immediately withdraw all landing and refuelling facilities at Shannon Airport for US military planes and other aircraft.
The motion was moved by the Independents, Mr Tony Gregory, Mr Seamus Healy, Mr Jerry Cowley, Mr Finian McGrath and Mr Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party.
An amendment, moved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, approving Government policy, was carried by 73 votes to 55. Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party and Sinn Féin voted with the Independents. Mr O'Dea said he was "unashamedly" on the side of the US on the issue, although he was not "an uncritical, unthinking, cap-touching admirer of the US". He added that what was occurring in Shannon had been taking place since the airport was built.
"It is a little known fact that during the Cuban missile crisis of 1961, Soviet troops, troops of that evil empire of the Soviet Union, on the way to Cuba to assist in firing nuclear missiles at the United States, were allowed to refuel in Shannon without let or hindrance. I doubt if they were acting under a UN mandate."
Mr O'Dea's views were echoed by Government colleagues from the mid-west. Mr Tony Killeen (FF, Clare) said many of his constituents were mystified at "the sudden interest of people shown by people who were absent when their support would have been appreciated".
However, Ms Jan O'Sullivan (Labour, Limerick East) said she refuted accusations of being anti-American. "It is a false and dishonest argument which seeks to divert attention away from the real issue."
It was right, she added, that Ireland, as a friendly country, spoke out when it saw that the US appeared to want to go against international law by taking it upon itself to go to war without the sanction of the UN.
The Labour deputy leader, Ms Liz McManus, said her party supported the broad thrust of the motion, although she was surprised it did not call on Iraq to comply with UN Security Council resolutions.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, said that a clear threat was being presented to the US, "and because Ireland is agreeing totally with the wishes of the United States, in terms of refuelling at Shannon Airport, we are subject to whatever threat the United States receives in that regard."
Mr Paudge Connolly (Independent, Cavan-Monaghan) claimed the US had treated Irish air navigation orders "in a cavalier fashion, as massive troop and munitions deployments openly flouted the regulations". Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said: "The Government has allowed US forces to use Shannon Airport as a pit-stop on their way to their war build-up."
Mr Seamus Healy (Independent, Tipperary South) said the nature of the motion was humanitarian and it was not anti-US. Dr Liam Twomey (Independent, Wexford) said the likely war was about oil because Western society, whether in America or Ireland, consumed huge resources which were purchased cheaply from Third World countries.
Mr Joe Higgins (Socialist Party, Dublin West) accused the Government of "cravenly and deliberately" turning a blind eye to the weapons and munitions being carried by US planes.