PETRA SCHURENHOFER,
Madam, - We have been called rats, weasels, and surrender monkeys. This, however did not stop 100,000 of us demonstrating against war on Iraq.
Ruth Dudley Edwards (Opinion, February 20th) probably thought adding a few more insults would do the trick and persuade us to change our minds. Now we are also "pawns of Marxists, Trotskyites, Islamofascists and cranks", lacking the intellectual capacity to think for ourselves.
"You didn't march in my name," she says. Were we pretending to? I can assure her that I was not and that I didn't see any posters claiming to do so. Ms Dudley Edwards is free to march down O'Connell Street in her own name, carrying a placard saying "I want war, and I want it now", or "George, Donald and Tony are decent folks". However, after applying my intellectual scrutiny to her platitudes, I have to confess that she failed to convince me, so I won't be joining her.
Being an "old European", I feel more comfortable in the company of "old socialist Michael D. Higgins", "yesterday's Trot Eamon McCann" and "dinosaur Tony Benn" - Yours, etc.,
PETRA SCHÜRENHÖFER, Terenure, Dublin 6w.
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Madam, - When T.K. Whitaker was selected as "the Greatest Living Irish person", I had my reservations. As a result of Whitaker/Lemass policies we have become so dependent on foreign capital, especially American, that we are now in effect close to losing our independence.
The Government's reaction to the threat of war with Iraq is indicative of this. It feels so dependent on the US that it must genuflect in subservience to American economic interests in Ireland and facilitate its war machine.
Unless change comes about, what we need to do now is to apologise to all those who fought for a democratic republic, and especially those who gave their lives to achieve it. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN O'DONOGHUE, Straboe, Co Carlow.
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Madam, - Much media commentary on the probably imminent war on Iraq seems to be based on the presupposition, premise or "norm" that war is not only inevitable, but even vaguely desirable, and not the reverse.
One BBC television news report spoke of Iraqi diplomatic efforts as a "charm offensive". This is of course subjective, frivolous, immature language, coming from a supposedly dispassionate, objective impartial news service. It is only one example of such bias, however.
Media treatment of peace activism is also patronising, frivolous and trivialising. The looming war with Iraq will be a pre-scripted, choreographed and orchestrated one. The loose Moscow-Paris-Peking-Berlin axis questions the hitherto unchallenged hegemony of the "Pax Americana-Brittanica" and the rush towards war; this axis includes mature, reflective populations which have suffered the ravages of war and their independent-minded statesmen won't be harried or scolded into war. - Yours, etc.,
AIDAN CONVERY, Jolster, Norway.
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Madam, - As one who has travelled widely in the Middle East, I always found the Iraqis a friendly, child-centred, civilised people. Most Irish people who worked at the Ibn-al-Bitar Hospital in Baghdad retain warm memories of the Iraqi people and their friendliness. They could certainly do with a change of leadership but not at the awful price of war about to be visited on them.
Yet again they will experience destruction of their water supplies, sewerage plants, electricity service, bridges and buildings. The children of Iraq will have more death, disease, misery and fear heaped upon them. There must be other ways of getting rid of an unwanted leader than a wholesale war against innocent people.
Since 1990, over 2 million children have been killed and 6 million have been seriously injured in wars (State of the World's Children 2003, UNICEF). - Yours, etc.,
DENIS G. GILL, The Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin 1.
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Madam, - Recently France and Germany have been severely criticised for their attitude towards war with Iraq. Some have gone so far as to suggest these countries were simply anti-American.
In my opinion their primary reason for being against this war is the fact that the people of France and Germany have the experience of two wars on their soil. Compared with that, the event of 11th September is trivial, I feel. Mr Bush and his countrymen have no right to criticise those who search for a peaceful settlement and want to avoid war, because they have lived through the horrors of it. - Yours, etc.,
CHRISTEL SUDWAY, Knocklyon Drive, Templeogue, Dublin 16.