Madam, - Crashing airliners fully laden with fuel into skyscrapers full of innocent civilians is a terrorist act.
Sending B52 bombers and cruise missiles to attack innocent civilians is a terrorist act.
Attacking refugee camps with tanks and helicopter gunships is a terrorist act.
President Bush is absolutely determined to have his war and those who orchestrated the election of this administration are as culpable as those who pull the triggers. The damage being inflicted on the institution of the United Nations may not have been accidental.
Condoleeza Rice was sent to harass Hans Blix into giving a premature assessment of Iraqi disarmament. Colin Powell has repeatedly given fabricated "evidence" to the UN and persists when the material has been shown to be false. No apology and no retraction.
The nations that the US has failed to bribe are being threatened with economic reprisals. If we do not play by the Bush rules, then he will take the ball away.
The presence in the wings of Richard Perle, Oliver North and Henry Kissinger is a cause for alarm.
The fall-out for American nationals in a world with justifiably aggrieved Arabs and Muslims seems not to have been taken into the equation. There has been enough killing. More killing will ensure even more killing. Has anyone anywhere wondered why Osama bin Laden, an educated wealthy Saudi citizen, hates America so much? - Yours, etc.,
JOHN A. CULLINANE,
Coolroe Heights,
Ballincollig,
Co Cork.
Madam, - I would invite your readers to imagine that the US and Britain, acknowledging the opposition of "Old Europe" and worldwide public opinion to any war with Iraq, withdraw their forces immediately from the Middle East. Given this scenario I would like to pose the following questions.
Firstly, does anyone believe that if the threat of Anglo-American force is withdrawn, Saddam Hussein's reluctant compliance with the weapons inspectors will continue?
Secondly, will the US and Britain, considering the huge cost the build-up has already cost, be likely to use the threat of force against Iraq in the event of a future Iraqi failure to comply with UN resolutions?
Thirdly, will the "Old Europe" supporters of the UN be willing to militarily enforce the UN writ in Iraq if full disarmament is not achieved?
Finally, will the world be a better or safer place when Saddam Hussein is seen to have won a huge victory against the world's greatest democratic power without having had fired a shot? - Yours, etc.,
JOHN J. CARROLL,
Ratoath,
Co Meath.
Madam, - In view of the Bush administration's expressed intention to start an unjustified, illegal and inhumane war against Iraq, we the undersigned call on the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, other Irish politicians and Government representatives not to meet President Bush in the United States over the coming St Patrick's Day events. - Yours, etc.,
PAUDGE CONNOLLY TD,
JOHN GORMLEY TD,
TONY GREGORY TD,
JOE HIGGINS TD,
FINIAN McGRATH TD,
PATRICIA McKENNA MEP;
CATHERINE ALMOND,
Solicitor;
IVANA BACIK,
Law School, TCD;
CONOR Ó BRIAIN,
Solicitor;
DARA ROBINSON,
Solicitor;
AILBHE SMYTH,
WERRC, UCD;
Irish Anti-War Movement,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - On Saturday, March 1st, I was one of the "non-violent" Irish Anti-War Movement marchers at Shannon Airport referred to by your Foreign Affairs correspondent, Deaglán de Bréadún, in his coverage of the events (Monday, March 3rd). His account is fair, balanced and accurate.
There is, however, one feature of this event which is not in his report: the presence on one of the roofs of the airport building of a female who was busy for the larger part of 30 minutes photographing the faces of the demonstrators as we stood listening to the various speakers.
The "guardians of the law" - or more pertinently, guardians of the United States war machine, had been informed that this group were not going to be involved in direct action, and by the time this woman started work the Garda had ample evidence of our benign intentions.
The possibility that the faces of the demonstrators can be loaded onto some Garda computer is sinister and extremely disturbing in as much that having one's face on a Garda computer in the circumstances of an anti-war demonstration at the airport to which our Government has given access to United States' troop transports has overtones of "tagging the subversive."
When I find evidence that those who are employed to protect and serve the citizens of the State are beginning to behave like the secret police of totalitarian states I am not only dismayed but also wondering from whom our Government is taking instruction! In light of the utterly appalling reports emanating from Afghanistan on Friday, March 7th of the brutality to, and torture and murder of prisoners, by the United States Special Forces, at the Bhagram Airbase, I was more sickened than ever before by the conduct of the Government of this State. (And God knows that the events and revelations of the past number of years have caused me acute nausea time and again!)
I mentioned my concerns to a journalist friend who advised me to write to my TD but not to the press because I could find that I had "made trouble for myself" by bringing this into the public domain. Enough said. - Yours, etc.,
MARGARET HOWARD,
Balbriggan,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - On Monday, November 25th last, I attended a public lecture given by Robert Fisk in the Calgach Centre in Derry. Among other things he said that if the weapons inspectors found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq then the inspectors' credibility would be deliberately undermined. I vividly remember Mr Fisk piercing the air with his finger and saying "Just you watch".
In Ireland on Sunday on March 9th Eamon Dunphy reported that Fox television recently interviewed an old friend of Hans Blix who said Hans could never make up his mind and was "the wrong man for the job". On Tuesday Conor O'Clery reported that "US officials have challenged the objectivity of Dr Hans Blix".
Operation "Fix Blix" has begun. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL McGUIRE,
Burt,
Co Donegal.
Madam, - My father has lived in the US all his life. He is 92 and worked as a journalist for a big-town newspaper. To him, George Bush - the Texas gunslinger, as he calls him - is the worst president since he was born.
My Dad is also strongly against this war even though he fought and believed in the necessity of the second World War. Perhaps, he says, if they introduced a draft where the rich and poor were soldiers, this nonsense would end. He's a wise man, my Dad, and I agree with him. - Yours, etc.,
BOB GORDON,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.