Madam, - Philip Donnelly's rant against anti-war protesters (January 2nd) is unfair. Belonging neither to the lofty ranks of the "nomenklatura" nor the "soixante-huitards", I am but an ordinary, humble anti-war protester who has fallen, it would appear, within the ambit of his wrath.
I am not, I hope, "deluded"; but yes, I will again hold my banner aloft to protest at the lies that led our (deluded?) Government to support an unjust, illegal, barbarous and immoral misadventure by the UK and US into Iraq. I will continue to protest at the lives destroyed, shattered and wrecked among the people of Iraq, the soldiers of the coalition and their families.
I will protest against every aspect of that war and will not be fooled by the subsequent "victories" of the bullies who unilaterally started it. I will also feel free to protest at the inhumane treatment of prisoners anywhere, whether they be the ruthless Saddam Hussein and his helpers or the gentle Dominican Sisters, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson, now starting a combined sentence of 107 months in three separate US jails for their non-violent anti-war protests.
I will feel free to continue to oppose terror - not just as defined by Mr Donnelly but terror of every hue whether it comes from the actions of suicide bombers, or paramilitaries, or the likes of George W. Bush and Anthony Blair. If Mr Donnelly believes that this constitutes either hatred of America or love of Saddam, that is his delusion. - Yours, etc.,
JUSTIN MORAHAN,
Scholarstown Park,
Dublin 16.
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Madam, - Philip Donnelly uses one of the oldest tricks in the book by trying to blacken anti-war protesters in Ireland as supporting a false agenda that they would utterly abhor and portraying them as supporters of the former dictator Saddam Hussein.
He accuses opponents of the Iraqi invasion of being deluded but I would suggest that it is an apt description of his own state of mind and that of his hero, Mr Bush.
It was not the Irish and and the international anti-war protesters but the US which enabled Saddam Hussein to gain political power in Iraq.
It was not the anti-war protesters but the US under two different administrations that armed Saddam with chemical, biological and conventional weapons for his war on Iran and provided him with logistical and intelligence data.
It was not Irish anti-war protesters but Donald Rumsfeld, now the chief prosecutor of the US war on his old friend, who shook hands with Saddam in Baghdad in 1983 and 1984 and assured him of continuing US support as America's ally in the region.
Mr Donnelly sees no problem with President Bush's "cleansing of the Augean stables of the Middle East" and hopes that Bush will continue in his quest if re-elected. There are many Augean stables which smell to high heaven that Mr Bush conveniently ignores.
- Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Co-ordinator, NGO
Peace Alliance,
Phibsborough Road,
Dublin 7.