Group stresses need for neutrality

CAMPAIGN:THE NEED to stop the "destruction" of Irish neutrality caused by the use of Shannon airport by US troops, should be made clear to President Barack Obama, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (Pana) has said.

Pana chairman Roger Cole said his organisation welcomed Mr Obama’s decision to visit Ireland to discover more about his Irish heritage, but that campaigns for “positive neutrality” which required the end to US military use of Shannon must not be ignored.

“Since 2001 Pana has campaigned against the destruction of the policy of Irish neutrality by the decision of Irish governments to allow since 2001, over two million US troops land in Shannon airport on their way to and from wars in total contravention of the 1907 Hague Convention on the duties and responsibilities of neutral states.”

Mr Obama would be meeting an “Irish political elite” which supported US military actions, Mr Cole said but the position of those who oppose these actions should be highlighted.

It was also clear, he said that what Irish and American people want is jobs at home, not war abroad.

“We wish to point out to President Obama and the Irish media. . . that public opinion polls in Ireland and the US show that the decisive majority of the Irish people do not support the use of Shannon Airport by US troops, and that the majority of US citizens do not support his wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya.”

There was Mr Cole said a refusal by the corporate media and politicians to face up to the reality that wars in which the US was engaged were bankrupting that country as well as “vassal states like Ireland”. Mr Coles said attempts to ignore the campaign against US military action was placing a financial burden on both countries.